Anthropology Exam 2 - Oliver Paine

Omomyidae and Adapiade (similarities)

2 major taxonomic families of primates that appear in the Eocene era

• vary diverse

• both live in trees

Phylogeny - Omomyidae

give rise to haplorhini

• evolve into modern haplorhines (our ancestors)
  Ex:
  tarsiers, new world monkeys (NWM), old world monkeys (OWM), humans, apes
  

• smaller

• mostly Nocturnal

Phylogeny - Adapidae

give rise to strepsirrhini

• evolve into lemurs, lorises, and galagos

• larger

• mostly Diurnal

Binomial nomenclature (human toxonomy, Taxonomic Families)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata (have spinal cord)

Class: Mammalia

Order: Primates

Family: Hominidae

Genus: Homo

Species: Homo Sapiens

• when writing a species name out

  • Italicize both parts of the name

  • Capitalize the first letter of the genus name (the first word).

  • Keep the specific epithet (the second word) in lowercase. 

Taxonomic Families rule

always end in -iade

ex:

Family: Hominidae

Bonobo Behavior 

• close evolutionary cousins to chimpanzees (act very different)

• Matriarchal society (less violent, more calm)

• use sex / sexual contact as a form of social interaction

• everything you think is unique to human sex, we see in bonobos

  • Ex:
    male-male sex
    female-female sex

C/P₃ honing complex

C - stands for K9 (upper)

P₃ - stands for lower per-molar

• the upper K9 is perpetually sharpening itself against the lower pre-molar

  • designed to keep the K9’s razor sharp (honing the tooth)

• particularly seen in the African and Asian monkeys (cercopithecoids)

  • Most pronounced in Baboons

Capuchin intelligence

• very smart

• use stone tools to crack nuts

• throw rocks at predators

• have a sense of fairness

  • (video of cucumber and a grape, 1 sees the other get a grape and it throws the cucumber back)

• They are Platyrrhines from America

• Rival what we see in chimpanzees

Carbohydrates

Structural - Fibers; cell walls of plants that we eat

Non-structural - what we usually think of
- sugars (sweet treats) that give instant hits of energy
- starches

Caribbean vervets

The monkeys that get drunk

• Not native to caribbean

  • came from slave trade with West Africa

• They set up colonies and in one area they learned they could steal alcoholic drinks from people on vacations at resorts

• Some drink till passing out, others don’t drink at all

• they follow the same pattern of alcohol abuse we see in humans

  • children of alcohol abusers tend to be alcohol abusers as well

Dunbar's Number

Hypothesis where they looked at the neocortex (front of brain that does executive functioning) 

• found a correlation between the size of the brain and the size of the group

  • correlation graph showing this

Main idea:

The larger the group is (as a monkey) the more intelligent you have to be because you have more social relationships you have to manage

• What’s the maximum group size that this particular species of monkey can be, based on the size of their neocortex?

Encephalization quotient (EQ)

relationship or measure of brain size compared to body size

• If it has an EQ of 1 that means that it is pretty much what you would expect for a mammal of that size

  • Lions have an EQ of 1

All primates have an EQ above 1
(larger brains than expected for their body size)

Humans have an EQ of 6 or 7

Evolutionary relationships of hominoids

apes, evolved from a common primate ancestor and diverged into several lineages over millions of years, including gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, and the human lineage

Fallback foods

less preferred food that they must eat because the regular (prefered) food is unobtainable or gone

• have important adaptations that allow them to get through the lean periods when preferred food aren’t around

Gigantopithecus

the largest primate (that we know of) that has ever lived

• Extinct relative of Orangutans

• We only know of them through dental stuff like teeth and jaws

  • Their teeth are HUGE

Gorillas

• Coco the gorilla learned sign language

• Very intelligent creatures

Video Example:

- A person helped raised a Gorilla and reintroduced him to the wild

- the same gorilla came back 5 years later and recognized him and treated him like an old friend
(good memory)

• The massive strength that particularly males have are only used when males are competing with one another for control of the group

• they are usually playful and calm animals - mello compared to Chimpanzees

• largest living primate

Harlow Experiments

Took baby Macaques and removed them from their mothers and raised them in isolation with varying degrees of comfort

• in a metal box with nothing but food and water

Ones with no contact with mother or anything else literally went insane and got physically and mentally ill

• Trying to show that even when physically taken care of, they would detoriatre

  • it was terrible and torchered these monkeys

If a social primate, contact with other individuals is crucial to your health
(humans included)

Human genitals

Humans don’t have:

Baculum (bone that’s in penis)

Belbelum (bone that’s in clitoris)

Most other primates have these

• testicular size ratio is also very different

  • humans have very interesting and unique morphology

Human settlement of Madagascar

Humans don’t arrive or at least don’t make permanent settlements on Madagascar until about 2000 years ago

• When they get their:

  • tons of lemurs; some are gorilla sized

Within about 1500 years all of the large lemurs go extinct as well as things like giant birds

• very common when humans enter a new landscape → large animals go extinct

• both because humans are competing with them for resources and also hunting them as well

Human taste perception

5 elements of taste that we can actually taste

• when combined together thats what makes us experience the flavor of food

1. Sweet

2. Sour

3. Bitter

4. Salty

5. Umami
   (Japanese word meaning savory or protein flavored)

Kanzi

Rockstar of language Bonobos

• understood lots of spoken english

  • video of handler wearing a welding mask and told Kanzi a series of really weird commands and Kanzi understood it
    Ex: Put the TV in the refrigerator

• Understood a lexigram board that spoke for him

  • a touch screen with images, Kanzi would press one and a computer would speak when he touched the icon

• taught other bonobos sign language (very unexpected)

• learned to start a fire and roast marshmallows

Language extinction

We live in a time where languages are going extinct and language diversity is plummeting

• we are losing world perspectives

• At one point the United States had incredible language diversity

  • At one point in California, there were more languages spoken when Europeans came when there were in Europe

Mimetic musculature

Facial muscles

• mammals have them, others don’t

  • Birds and fish can’t make facial expressions

• Humans and primates use faces to communicate emotions

• Humans take it to another level

  • communicate every emotion through facial expressions

Non-human primate distribution

The green areas shown in the image

• tropical / subtropical areas(usually)

  • couple exceptions
    ex: Japanese Macaques

• Madagascar

  • Most Strepsirrhines live (lemur diversity)

• Americas Monkeys

  • Platyrrhines

• Australia

  • None native

  • no primates until humans

• catarrhines

  • Apes and monkeys of Africa and Asia

Non-human primate tool use

Jane Goodall made this a known thing

• It was so revolutionary that people didn’t believe that Chimpanzees couldn’t use tools
  

• Chimpanzees and Orangutans use sticks probe for insects

• Chimpanzees and capuchins also use pieces of wood or rock to crack open nuts

• the use of tools used to be a definition to define humans (made us different from other animals)

• Now we know that many primates use tools

Orangutans

strange with social structure (all other apes live in groups)

• Live in solitary

  • females live with children until they are old enough

• Only come together when mating

Males have 2 forms of maturity (Bimaturism)

• Unflanged

• Flanged (some never reach)

Hypothesis: this is a mating strategy

• Males unflanged aren’t perceived as threats by the flanged males

• Unflanged males cruise along the slide lines until there strategy changes

  • Darkside: they then try to ambush females to force themselves on them

Platyrrhine origins

Rafting sweepstakes dispersal

• Things called parapithecids (first true monkeys in Africa) clung to vegetation and somehow made it to the Americas

  • back then the continents were a lot closer and the currents checked out

  • genetics also suggest this is true
    (Platyrrhine genetics link straight back to parapithecids)

Plesiadapiforms

• lived right at the end of the reign of the dinosaurs (cretaceous era)

• some argue that these are the the 1st primates (most don’t)

• Very close characteristics to primates, but missing some as well

• Many suggested that this was the last stage before evolving into primates

Primate dietary challenges

Primates are very good at solving these challenges

• Mechanical challenges

  • thorns on food, or a hard shell over food

• Chemical challenges

  • Plants can have toxins

  • Species have to develop immunity

• Ecological

  • what season is it?

  • where certain things are going to fruiting

  • where certain foods might be found

Primate locomotor patterns

• Quadrupedalism

• Leaping

• Suspensory

• Bipedalism

Quadrupedalism

walking on all 4’s

Major kinds -

• Arboreal - monkeys usually walk on branches, have a tail, smaller (larger break branches)

• Terrestrial - no tail, larger
  Ex: baboons

Specialized - 

• Knuckle - walking on knuckles
  Ex: Gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos

Leaping

Long legs compared to arms (they hop)

Ex: Tarsiers and Lemurs

• Arboreal

• Terrestrial

Suspensory

Hanging underneath trees

• General - something humans would do
  Ex:  Orangutangs

  • Mobile shoulder joints

  • crawl thru trees, underneath branches, hanging
    

• Brachiation - highly specialized
  Ex: Gibbons

  • swinging through trees and letting go, flying through the air branch to branch

• Knuckle walking

Bipedalism

walking on 2 legs (what us humans do)

• Temporary - many primates can do temporary

• Dedicated - humans

  • humans are dedicated and consistently doing this

Primate mating strategies

Main focus on males

• Gorillas - physically fight each other for control over the group

  • They are polygamist (single male with multiple females)

• Chimpanzees - all mate with each other

  • Sperm competition - males try to produce as much sperm as possible to out compete other males

• Monogamy - mate for life, no fighting between males

  • males don’t have to worry about fighting each other

  • coupled, female / male basically the same size as one another 

Ring-tailed lemurs

• different than most lemurs

• they live in large groups

• diurnal

• gregarious (not shy)

  • No problems being around humans (easy to study)

• Female dominated

  • even female children out rank every male

  • No male alpha

• Males have stink fights

  • Use smell to communicate

  • have glands that emit smells

  • Rub these smells on tails and waft it at other males to compete

Synapomorphies - Primates

• have grasping digits (thumbs and big toes)

• Forward facing eyes (stereo-vision)

• nails instead of claws

• Postorbital bar (ring bone around eye)

• finger prints

  • only other thing that has fingerprints are Koalas (mammal)

Synapomorphies - Strepsirrhines

• Wet noses (complex noses)

• Faces are snoutier

• tooth combs (lower teeth that jet out)

• Use smell to communicate

• no postorbital closure (gap behind eye)

Contain all Primate characteristics

Synapomorphies - Haplorhines

• Dry noses (simple noses)

• Postorbital closure (eye socket like a cup)

• Larger brains (than strepsirrhines)

Contain all Primate characteristics

Synapomorphies - Platyrrhines

• 3 premolars (instead of 2 like humans)

Contain all Primate, Haplorhines characteristics

Synapomorphies - Colobines

Part of the cercopithecoidea (Asian / Africa monkeys)

• leaf monkeys (diet mostly leaves)

• specialized digestive system

  • allow them to extract more nutrients from leaves than humans can

Contain all Primate, Haplorhines characteristics

Synapomorphies - Cercopithecines

Part of the cercopithecoidea (Asian / Africa monkeys)

• varied diet (no specialized digestive system)

• Cheek pouches

  • pockets where they can stuff food

  • if not a safe area can take food else where and eat there

  • sometimes pockets are larger than their stomachs

Contain all Primate, Haplorhines characteristics

Synapomorphies - Hominoids (the apes)

• lack of tail 

• shoulder blades (broad shoulders that are mobile)

• Largest brain of all primates

Contain all Primate, Haplorhines characteristics

Tarsiers

• Strange Primates

• Nocturnal

• Only solely carnivorous primate (eat insects and small vertebrates like birds)

• Largest eyes compared to body size of any mammal

  • Can’t move them in eye sockets

  • Have to turn their whole head to look around

They are Haplorhines 

• They lack the reflective membrane in the back of their eyes (tapetum lucidum)

Theory of Mind

When something learns Empathy; understanding that others have emotions

• Human children start to understand around ages 4-5

• They figure out that not everyone is thinking the same thing

• once thought to be unique to humans

However there is evidence of the great apes gaining this knowledge

• Washo - a female Chimpanzee that was 1st to learn sign language

• She understood that her Handler Katt had miscarried a baby
  (washo also had complications with having children)

• washo signed that she was sad (the sign for a tear) and touched Katt’s stomach

At this point it was clear that Washo understood that Katt was sad. Washo had empathy for Katt

Vervet behaviors

They have social flexibility

• figured out through the blue vs. pink corn conditioning experiments

• 2 groups 1 conditioned to eat pink the other blue corn; when the males swapped groups they quickly decided to eat the other corn previously not conditioned to eat because others were eating it

Clear alarm calls for certain predators

• Avian (bird) - get down from trees, or get in the trunk

• Snake - stand up to see snake in grass

• Leopard - run up the tree

Viki the chimpanzee

Very first language Chimpanzee

- Failed experiment

• Only was able to speak 4-5 words

• They figured out that Chimpanzees are physically unable to produce human speech sounds

  • Even if mentally capable to speak, they are physically unable to

• Washo came after her

  • They figured out that Chimpanzees do have a language capacity through sign language