Chapter 5: Primate Classification

Flashcards covering the classification and characteristics of primates, including types of mammals, dental formulas, diets, locomotion, and primate groups.

What is the focus of the chapter on primates?

The study of nonhuman primates to understand their classification and differences from other mammals.

What are monotremes?

Egg-laying mammals like echidnas and duck-billed platypuses.

What are marsupials?

Mammals like koalas, kangaroos, and opossums that carry their young in a pouch.

What are placental mammals?

Mammals that give live birth and typically have more complex brains.

Approximately how old is the order Primata?

Primates are estimated to be around 91,000,000 years old.

What are primitive traits?

Traits inherited from a direct ancestor.

What are derived traits?

Recently changed traits, which can be shared or unique to a species.

What are generalized traits?

Multi-purpose traits, such as having five digits.

What are specialized traits?

Specialized traits, such as the dental comb in lemurs for grooming.

What are some common traits among primates?

Convergent eyes in the front, a postorbital bar, and reliance on vision over smell.

What is the purpose of the postorbital bar?

The eye orbit is entirely enclosed in bone for protection.

What is trichromatic color vision?

The ability to see multiple different colors.

What does pentadactyly mean?

Having five digits on hands and feet.

What does it mean to be a heterodont?

Different kinds of teeth including incisors, canines, premolars, and molars.

What is the human dental formula?

Two incisors, one canine, two premolars, three molars.

Who are frugivores?

Primates that primarily eat fruit, typically having bigger, broader molars.

Who are insectivores?

Primates that primarily eat insects, typically having very pointed molars.

Who are folivores?

Primates that primarily eat leaves, typically having broad molars with shearing crests.

What are the four ways primates move?

Vertical clinging and leaping, bipedalism, quadrupedalism, and brachiation.

What is quadrupedalism?

Walking on all fours.

What is brachiation?

Swinging from arm to arm, typical of apes.

What are strepsirrhines?

The wet patch on nose; include lemurs and lorises.

What are haplorhines?

Dry noses; include tarsiers, platyrrhines, and catarrhines.

What are platyrrhines?

New World monkeys with flat noses and outward-facing nostrils.

What are catarrhines?

Monkeys with downward-facing nostrils, found in Africa and Asia.

What is sexual dimorphism?

Size difference between males and females.

Who are cercopithecoids?

African and Asian monkeys that tend to be larger and sexually dimorphic, with ischial callosities.

What are ischial callosities?

Pads on the rear for sitting, found in cercopithecoids.

How do Orangutans behave differently from other great apes?

Orangutans are solitary in the wild and don't learn socially like other great apes.