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30 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is a Primate? |
Adaptations for an arboreal lifestyle
Broad dietary plasticity Parental investment highly manipulative grasping hands and feet, with opposable thumbs and big toes. Unlike most other mammals, primates have nails on their fingers and toes instead of claws. This is a derived primate trait that evolved in the primate common ancestor. There are some primates - the marmosets and tamarins of South and Central America - that have their nails modified into claws and most lemurs and lorises have at least one finger containing a grooming claw, but otherwise all primates are just like humans in having nails on the ends of their fingers and toes. have a generalized skeleton move around quadrupedally but also have other locomotor behaviors including leaping, climbing, suspension (hanging below branches). Genetic and fossil evidence suggest that all living primates share a common ancestor that lived approximately 77 million years ago. |
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Humans (homo sapiens) |
A bipedal primate in the genus homo. Homo sapiens (Latin: "wise man") is the binomial nomenclature (also known as the scientific name) for the only extant human species. Homo is the human genus, which also includes Neanderthals and many other extinct species of hominid; H. sapiens is the only surviving species of the genus Homo. Modern humans are the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, which differentiates them from what has been argued to be their direct ancestor, Homo sapiens idaltu. |
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Homo |
Homo is the genus that comprises the species Homo sapiens, which includes modern humans, as well as several extinct species classified as ancestral to or closely related to modern humans—as for examples Homo habilis and Homo neanderthalensis. The genus is about 2.8 million years old; it first appeared as its earliest species Homo habilis, which emerged from the genus Australopithecus, which itself had previously split from the lineage of Pan, the chimpanzees.[6][7] Taxonomically, Homo is the only genus assigned to the subtribe Hominina which, with the subtribes Australopithecina and Panina, comprise the tribe Hominini (see evolutionary tree below). All species of the genus Homo plus those species of the australopithecines that arose after the split from Pan are called hominins.
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Taxonomy |
Taxonomy "arrangement", is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. Organisms are grouped together into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given a taxonomic rank; groups of a given rank can be aggregated to form a super group of higher rank, thus creating a taxonomic hierarchy. The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus is regarded as the father of taxonomy, as he developed a system known as Linnaean classification for categorization of organisms and binomial nomenclature for naming organisms.
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Binomial nomenclature |
Binomial nomenclature (also called binominal nomenclature or binary nomenclature) is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages. Such a name is called a binomial name (which may be shortened to just "binomial"), a binomen or a scientific name; more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs; the second part identifies the species within the genus. For example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens.
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Genus |
A genus (pl. genera) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms in biology. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus.
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Taxonomic ranks
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domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species.
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Hominins |
All species of the genus Homo plus those species of the australopithecines that arose after the split from Pan
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skull structure of primates |
One of the most distinctive characteristics of primates is the fact that they have eyes which face forward on their skulls rather than toward the sides of the skull, like in most mammals. As a result, in most mammals, the visual field of each eye does not overlap with that of the other eye. Cats and some dogs are a notable exception to this pattern. Primates have eyes that are positioned to face forward which in turn leads to greater overlap in the visual fields of the eyes. This overlap creates a stereoscopic view which enhances depth perception. So primates generally have a better ability to perceive the world three-dimensionally.All primates have what's called a post-orbital bar surrounding their eye socket. This is another derived primate trait. Some other mammals also have a post orbital bar, but in primates it may be related to providing more protection for the forward-facing eyes. Some primates, like lemurs and bushbabies, have only a post orbital bar. But monkeys, apes, and humans have an additional feature: the eye is surrounded by a bony plate, creating what is termed post-orbital closure.
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Dentition |
Primates, including humans, have relatively unspecialized (generalized) teeth. Most primates have four types of teeth arranged in the following order from the midline of the mouth:IncisorsCaninePremolarsMolarsIn each quadrant of the mouth (moving from the midline along the toothrow to the back of mouth), most primates have 2 incisors, 1 canine, 2 or 3 premolars, and 3 molars. This combination is known as the dental formula.
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Strepsirhines
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Lemurs, lorises and bushbabies
nocturnal good sense of smell (olfactory ability) The word ‘strepsirhine’ means wet nose nose is connected to their upper lip Strepsirhines retain more primitive mammalian traits (traits they inherited from their mammalian common ancestor) than haplorhines, including a wet nose and a reflective layer behind the eye called the tapetum lucidum. The tapetum lucidum amplifies light in the eye of nocturnal animals and is the so-called "eyeshine" seen in many mammals in comparison to halplorhine primates, strepsirhines generally have smaller brains relative to body size, larger olfactory bulbs indicating more reliance on smell, and relatively more laterally-facing eyes (although not as distinct as in other mammals). Strepsirhines have a postorbital bar (a derived primate trait), but do not have complete postorbital closure (a derived haplorhine trait). Most strepsirhines show no or little sexual size dimorphism (body size difference between males and females). All strepsirhines share a number of derived traits which categorize them in the Suborder Strepsirhini. Strepsirhine primates have toothcombs (except the strange aye-aye from Madagascar) and grooming claws on the second toe of each foot. The tarsier is sometimes grouped in with the strepsirhines to form a group called the Prosimians. |
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Platyrrhines
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Platyrrhines are the New World monkeys of Central and South America. Most New World monkeys are arboreal quadrupeds and some of them have grasping, or prehensile, tails. |
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Catarrhines
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The Catarrhines include the Old World monkeys, apes and humans. The Old World monkeys live in Africa and Asia, and can be divided into 2 groups: the cercopithecines (also known as cheek-pouch monkeys) and the colobines (also known as leaf-eating monkeys).
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Brain |
One of the hallmark characteristics of primates is their large brain size. Primates in general have larger brains relative to body size than most other mammals.
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Haplorhine primates
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Haplorhines include all the monkeys and apes (even humans) as well as one small, enigmatic primitive primate from Southeast Asia called the tarsiers
diurnal (active during the day) good sense of vision and color perception the word ‘haplorhine’ means dry nose All Haplorhines share a number of derived traits which categorized them in the Suborder Haplorhini. Haplorhines have complete postorbital closure (bony eye socket), larger brain size relative to body size (even larger brains than Strepsirhines), greater reduction in olfactory abilities, and convergent eyes. The Haplorhines can be further divided into Platyrrhines and Catarrhines. |
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Social behavior |
Primates are social animals. Nearly all primates live in groups (with a few exceptions, such as orangutans). Some, like the baboons of east Africa, live in huge troops that may number well over 100 animals and others, such as the gibbons of Southeast Asia, live in monogamous pairs.
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Life History |
Life history is a term that describes the major developmental stages in animals' lives, such as gestation, lactation (for mammals), adulthood, and reproduction. Compared to other mammals primates have a relatively long period of growth, including gestation, infancy, and childhood. One significant reason for this is the large brains that young primates must grow. Primates rely heavily on learned behaviors. Primates raised in isolation from a group will not develop the skills for sociality and parenting necessary to survive. As a result of this steep learning curve, primates have significant parental investment in their offspring. As a result of this increased demand on primate parents, most primates have a single offspring at a time and invest heavily in raising that infant.
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Primitive traits |
Primitive traits are traits that evolved a long time ago in a distant common ancestor.
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Derived traits |
Derived traits are traits that evolved relatively more recently. Taxonomists used only derived traits to assign each species to a taxonomic category.
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Anthropoids
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resembling a human being in form |
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Cercopithecines
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The cercopithecines generally eat a lot of fruit and include monkeys such as guenons, baboons, and macaques
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Colobines
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The colobines generally eat a lot of leaves and include monkeys such as the proboscis monkey and colobus monkey.
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Old World Monkeys |
Old World monkeys display a mix of arboreal and terrestrial quadrupedalism.
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Apes |
The last of the Catarrhines to discuss are the apes. There are currently only five types of apes living today, but in the past apes were widespread across Africa, Europe, and Asia.
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Gibbons amd Siamangs |
The gibbons and siamangs are small-bodied apes of Southeast Asia and Indonesia. The gibbons and siamangs range in body size from about 5-13 kg (11 - 30 lbs) and are the some of the most acrobatic of all primates. They engage in a form of suspensory locomotion called brachiation in which they actively and quickly swing from branch to branch through the trees. As a consequence, gibbons have very long arms and hook-like hands. Gibbons and siamangs usually live in groups of two representing pair-bonded individuals that live together and mate over their lifetimes. Male and female gibbons and siamangs are usually the same size.
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Orangutangs |
gibbons, orangutans are slow moving, large animals that cross gaps in the forest canopy using multiple limbs for support. Male orangutans are twice the size of females. Females usually weigh about 35 kg (about 80 pounds), while males typically weigh in around 78 kg (170 lbs). This degree of sexual dimorphism is matched in primates only by baboons and gorillas. Orangutans eat fruits and are generally solitary. Females share their home range with juvenile offspring, but otherwise live alone. A single male's home range overlaps the ranges of multiple adjacent females and their juvenile offspring. This type of social organization is known as a noyau.
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Gorillas |
The other living apes are restricted to Africa and are frequently lumped together and called African Apes. The lowland and mountain gorillas are the largest living primates. Females weigh on average about 70-90 kg (150-200 lbs) while males can weigh up to 200 kg (400 lbs)! Gorillas are knucklewalking quadrupeds but they also do a significant amount of climbing. Most gorillas live in small groups with a dominant male (the silverback) and multiple adult females and their offspring. However, mountain gorillas are more variable in their social structure, ranging from single-male/multi-female (harem groups) to multi-male/multi-female groups like in chimpanzees. Mountain gorillas eat the leaves and pith of plants growing in the extreme altitudes of their habitats because fruits are generally not available. Lowland gorillas are more ape-like in their diets, preferring to eat fruits.
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Chimpanzee |
The most well-known of the African apes is the common chimpanzee. Chimps are knucklewalking quadrupeds who, like gorillas, also engage in climbing and suspensory behaviors in the trees. Sexual dimorphism is less significant in chimps than in other apes with males weighing approximately 40-50 kg and females 30-40 kg. Chimps eat a wide range of foods including fruit, nuts, termites, and meat. Chimps are accomplished tool-users with different groups having distinct cultural traditions for food extraction and tool use (e.g., termite fishing, hunting, and nut cracking). Chimpanzee social structure is more complex than other primates. Chimpanzees live in fission-fusion communities where individuals spend time in different sub-groups within the community, and these sub-groups may join other individuals or sub-groups, or an individual chimp may go off on his/her own for several days. Chimpanzees are also distinguished from other primates in the level of intergroup aggression and violence between males in different groups.
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Bonobo |
the African apes is the bonobo which is also referred to as the pygmy chimpanzee even though it is not significantly smaller than the common chimp. Bonobos eat mostly the same foods as chimpanzees such as fruits, nuts, leaves, and meat. They are somewhat more arboreal and suspensory, but they knucklewalk when traveling on the ground. Bonobos are distinguished most readily from common chimps and other apes in their social behaviors. Bonobos use sexual intercourse as a means of social bonding among group members. Sex is commonly used as a greeting between two individuals, as a conflict-resolution tool, or as a reconciliation mechanism. This behavior is not limited to males and females, but includes male-male as well as female-female interactions and multiple different forms of sexual activity.
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Evolution |
evolution is change through time. More specifically, evolution is a process by which the gene frequencies within a population change over the course of multiple generations. So the various factors that drive evolution, such as natural selection, operate on variation in gene frequencies within a population and result in changes in the frequency of heritable genetic traits from one generation to the next.
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