ANTHRO 105 Exam 2 - Stage 3: Food and Feeding Adaptations

30 cards: 21 vocabulary + 9 concept cards covering nutrition, body size, food requirements, nutrient sources and all four feeding adaptations. Keep Learn set to Answer with Term: vocabulary prompts ask for a term; CONCEPT prompts ask for an explanation. Smart grading on; key ideas matter more than exact wording. Plant defenses are in Stage 4.

Basal metabolic rate (BMR)

Energy expenditure for basic body maintenance at rest under standardized conditions, excluding activity, growth, and reproductive costs.

Active metabolism

Energy expenditure associated with activities such as locomotion, foraging, and other behavior beyond basal maintenance.

Growth rate

The pace of increase in body size or tissue, which affects the resources needed for growth.

Reproductive effort

Resources allocated to reproduction, including pregnancy, lactation, mating effort, and care of offspring.

Macronutrients

Nutrients required in relatively large amounts, especially carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Micronutrients

Essential nutrients needed in small amounts, including vitamins and minerals.

Energy

The capacity to do biological work, supplied by metabolism of usable food compounds; not itself a nutrient category.

Ripe fruit

Mature fruit that is often softer and richer in readily available sugars than its unripe state, though composition varies.

Unripe fruit

Immature fruit that is often tougher, less sugary, or more chemically defended than ripe fruit.

Mature leaves

Fully developed leaves that generally contain more structural fiber and are harder to process than young leaves.

Young leaves

Developing leaves that often contain less fiber and more accessible protein than mature leaves, with variable chemical defenses.

Exudate (gum)

Plant material released from tissue, often after damage; gum is a carbohydrate-rich exudate eaten by some primates.

Insectivore

An animal whose diet emphasizes insects or similar small animal prey; primate examples tend to be small with sharp-cusped teeth.

Folivore

An animal whose diet emphasizes leaves, commonly associated with shearing molars and substantial microbial digestive capacity.

Frugivore

An animal whose diet emphasizes fruit, often associated with broad incisors and relatively low, rounded molar cusps.

Gummivore

An animal whose diet emphasizes gums or related plant exudates; specialized gougers have teeth adapted to opening bark.

Foregut

The anterior portion of the digestive tract; in colobines, the specialized stomach provides a major microbial chamber.

Fiber

Structural plant carbohydrates and related material that resist the animal's own digestive enzymes and may be processed by gut microbes.

Foregut fermentation

Microbial breakdown of food in a chamber before the main intestinal digestive regions, as in the colobine sacculated stomach.

Gut microbes

Microorganisms living in the digestive tract that can help process food, including fiber, and sometimes plant chemicals.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)

Products of microbial fermentation that a host can absorb and use as energy.

Four components: basal metabolic rate (maintenance at rest), active metabolism (movement/behavior), growth rate (building tissue), and reproductive effort (for example pregnancy and lactation). Body size and individual condition influence these costs; equally sized animals need not have identical food requirements.

CONCEPT | LECTURE 10 & 11 Q7 | What factors determine how much food a primate needs? [Guide 3A]

Small primates generally require more energy per unit mass and often eat substantial insects, gum, or other high-quality foods. Larger primates require more total food but less energy per unit mass and can often process bulky leaves with larger guts. Medium-sized species commonly emphasize fruit. These are tendencies; many species have mixed diets.

CONCEPT | LECTURE 10 & 11 Q8 | What relationship do we see between primate body size and primate diet? What do smaller primates tend to eat a lot of? What do the largest primates tend to eat a lot of? [Guide 3A / 3B]

Primates need macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins), micronutrients (vitamins/minerals needed in smaller amounts), and water. Macronutrients supply energy and/or building materials; micronutrients support essential functions. Enough calories alone does not guarantee a balanced diet.

CONCEPT | LECTURE 10 & 11 Q9 | What are primates seeking out in their diet? i.e., what are macronutrients and micronutrients? (remember another key component is also water). [Guide 3A]

The lecture emphasizes fat, carbohydrates and microbially digestible fiber as energy sources, with protein emphasized for building/maintenance and as an energy source in shortage. Microbes convert fiber into absorbable short-chain fatty acids. Scientific nuance: protein can also provide energy outside starvation; "only in emergencies" is a course simplification.

CONCEPT | LECTURE 10 & 11 Q10 | Which food components provide energy, and how does fiber become usable energy? [Guide 3A]

Protein: insects/animal prey and leaves, especially young leaves. Carbohydrates: ripe fruit sugars and gums; fiber can yield energy after microbial fermentation. Fats: many seeds and animal foods, including some insects. Food composition and digestibility vary; not every leaf, fruit, or insect supplies the same balance.

CONCEPT | LECTURE 10 & 11 Q12 | What kinds of plant or animal foods do nonhuman primates tend to get their protein from? Carbohydrates? Fats? [Guide 3A]

Insectivorous primates tend to be small, with sharp molar cusps/crests for piercing and breaking prey coverings and relatively simple guts suited to digestible animal foods. Small high-quality prey can meet small animals' needs; large animals would need too many insects to meet total requirements.

CONCEPT | LECTURE 10 & 11 Q13 | What are the morphological features (body size, dentition, digestive tract) of an insectivore? [Guide 3B]

Folivores tend to be relatively large, with smaller incisors, molar shearing crests for cutting leaves, and large/complex guts with microbial fermentation. Microbes process fiber into usable SCFAs. Colobines have a sacculated foregut; other folivores can rely more on hindgut fermentation.

CONCEPT | LECTURE 10 & 11 Q14 | What are the morphological features (body size, dentition, digestive tract) of an folivore? [Guide 3B]

Frugivores are commonly intermediate in body size, with broad incisors for biting fruit and low, rounded molar cusps for crushing. They have relatively large guts, generally less specialized for leaf fermentation than folivores. Fruit can be nutrient-rich but patchy/seasonal, favoring selective foraging and travel.

CONCEPT | LECTURE 10 & 11 Q15 | What are the morphological features (body size, dentition, digestive tract) of an frugivore? [Guide 3B]

Gummivores tend to be small. Specialized gougers such as marmosets have robust elongated incisors and claw-like nails for clinging while accessing gum. Specialized gum-feeding marmosets also have an enlarged cecum for extended microbial gum processing (supplementary WNPRC clarification). Do not assume all occasional gum eaters share identical adaptations.

CONCEPT | LECTURE 10 & 11 Q16 | What are the morphological features (body size, dentition, digestive tract) of an gummivores? [Guide 3B]