Week Three Wed

Lecture Four  

Dr. Eve 

ANTA01 

The Living Primates 

Week Two W  

Housekeeping  

  • Midterm: Wednesday may 29th – 5:00-7:00 PM, weeks 1-3  

  • HOMEWORK: MONKEY STORY (AUDIO RESPONSE) EXPECTATIONS- answer the questions provide evidence/examples and explain concepts  

  • First lab on FRIDAY!!!! 

  • Use two hands always  

  • Use caution when handling specimens,  

  • No food/drink  

  • No photos  

  • No electronics during lab, complete with pencil/ pen and paper.  

 

Recap of Mondays lecture  

  • Review of Relative Dating, and absolute date.  

  • Principle 

 

Outline of Todays lecture  

  • How do we define primates  

  • Primate classification  

  • Why study primates  

  • Primate models for human behavior.  

 

How do we define primates? 

  • Primates are a rather non-descript mammalian order that cannot be characterized by a single derived feature shared by all members  

  • Definitions requires combination of derived features.  

Defining a primate  

  • Defined on basis of behavioural, adaptive and evolutionary tendencies 

  • 500 species identified  

  • Great range in size and habitat  

  • Core charteristics  

  • Flexible body, arboreal signature 

  • Dietary plasticity  

  • Parental investment  

Flexible anatomy with arboreal signature 

  • Generalized skeletal structure  

  • Non human primates move on four limbs quadrupedal  

  • Variable locomotion behaviours 

  • Upright upper body posture 

  • Upper/lower limbs and major joins separate 

  • Emphasis on touch  

  • Emphasis on vision  

Manipulation with hands and feet  

  • Mobile joints and feet 

  • Opposable thumb  

  • Power and precision grips.  

Sensory emphasis on touch  

  • Enhanced sense of touch  

  • Presenters of dermal ridges 

  • Enchanted tactile sense, reduce spilling  

  • Nails instead of claws  

  • Protect and support digits.  

Sensory emphasis on vision  

  • Increased reliance on vision  

  • Stereoscopic vision ability to see in three dimensions  

  • Post orbital bar in strepsirrhines  

  • Post-orbital plate or cup in monkeys, apes and humans  

  • Color vision common  

  • Expecting- nocturnal prosimians  

  • Decreased reliance in small  

  • Reduction in snout size and olfactory areas of brain  

 

2. Dietary plasticity  

  • Primates exploit a wide range of food sources, doesn’t mean that they will strictly be a insectivores, can change  

Parental Investment  

  • Fertility: Usually have one offspring at a time  

  • Birth interval: long gaps between births  

  • PreAdult care: Long period of offspring car 

  • Mothers/ fathers, siblings/grandparents  

 

Reliance on learned behaviours 

  • Long period of offspring dependency,  

  • More time for learning  

  • Extended life span.  

 

Brain Size 

  • Primates have large brains for their body size 

  • Primates have large brains for their body size, epically neocortex, memory, problem solving, abstract thought  

 

Linnaean classification  

  • Hierarchy based on taxonomic ranks  

  • Species names are binomials: Genus + Species 

  • Latin grammar, italics for the genus and the binomial  

  • Genus initial upper class, tribal name invial lowercase 

  • Sapiens (Latin for wise) is not plural (always ends in s)  

Ex.  

Class: mammalian  

Order: Primates 
Family: Hominidate 

Genus: Homo  

Species: Homo Sapiens.  

Close relatives of primates  

  • Eurchonta  

  • Primates  

  • Scandentia  

  • Tree shrews (not shrews)  

  • Dermoptera (Flying lemurs that aren’t lemurs)  

  • Earliest primates were tree shrews  

Tree shrews 

  • Neither trees/shrews 

  • Eat fruits and insects 

  • Either fruit and insects  

  • Either arboreal or tresseiterl  

  • Were once considered primates, but removed from their primate order after better study of their anatomy and genetics  

  • Served as a good model for the earliest primates.  

  • Homologues trait having the same trait from a distinct relative  

 
Flying lemurs 

  • Cannot fly, nor are they lemurs  

  • Eat leaves 

  • Having a gliding membrane, the largest gliding mammals  

  • Have very odd lower incisors- grooming? Feeding?  

 

Living Primates  

  • Strepsirrhini- little and cute, usually lemurs/bush baby ‘ 

  • Relays on a lot of smell, not on the vision bc they are nocturnal  

 

Comparing suborders  

Strepsirrhine 

  • Wet nose (rhinarium) 

  • Mostly nocturnal 

  • Tapetum 

  • Immobile upper lip— unexpressive faces 

  • Longer snout 

  • Postorbital bar 

  • Tooth comb 

  • Are Able to survive monkeys by either being georgrpahically different or by becoming nocturnal.  

General trends  

Distributions  

  • Asia/africa 

  • Activity pattern: Nocturnal  

  • Locomotion: 

  • Mostly vertical clinging and leaping  

  • Quadrupedal walking  

  • Best living analogy to earliest fossils primates.  

 

  • Strepsirrhine infraorders  

  • Lemuriformes 

  • Distribution: Madagascar  

  • Most diverse among living primates 

  • 21% of all primate genera  

  • Five families; 100 species 

  • Various ecological niches 

  • Wide range of behaviours and diets 

  • Highly threatened  

  • When threaten, generalized are able to overcome comepart to specialized.  

  • Chiromyiformes 

  • Only one family (Daubentoniidae) 

  • The worlds largest nocturnal primate  

  • Constantly growing incisors  

  • Near threanted  

  • Solitary  

  • Omnivorous (bony finger fro extractive foraging)( very interesting) 

 

  • Lorisiformes (Two families, Lorisidae, galagidae)  

  • Nocturnal  

  • Arboreal  

  • Solitary  

  • Diet: Insects and fruits 

  • Distrubution: Centeral Africa and south and southeast Asia’s  

  • Activity pattern: Nocturnal  

  • Arboreal  
    Locomotion: Slow climbers 

  • Currently pop for slow loris as pets, threatening several species  

  • Pottos and angwantibos found on mainland Africa  

 

 

Haplorrhine 

  • Dry nose 

  • Mostly diurnal 

  • No tapetum 

 

  • Mobile upper lip— expressive faces 

  • Flatter face 

  • Full orbital closure 

  • No tooth comb 

  • Shares many traits not seen in strepsirrhines (Lemurs, lorises, Galagos)  

  • The tasiers is a problem here since it shares many traits with both strepsirrhines and haplorrhines.  

 

 

TARSIERS 

  • Strepsirrhine-like  

  • Nocturnal 

  • Huge eyes  

  • Grooming claw 

  • Mobile ears 

  • Haplorrhine-like  

  • Entirely carnivorous, insects, small vertebrates 

  • Vertical clingers and leapers  

 

Platyrrhines 

  • New world monkeys (NWM) 

  • Centeral/south american monkeys  

  • Flat noses, broad, round nostrils  

  • Catarrhines 

  • Narrow, slit like nostrils like ours  

  • Asian/african monkeys, apes and humans  

 

  • Callitrichidae (Marmosets and tamarins) 

  • Smallest monkeys  

  • Claws instead of nails,  

  • Claws instead of nails  

  • Monogamous and cooperative polyandrous groups  

  • Male care of infants  

  • Give birth to twins 

 

Atelidae  

  • Spider monkeys, howlers, muriquil  

  • Prehensile tails 

Atelidae: Howler monkeys  

  • Specialized hyoid bone for howling  

 
Aotidae: Owl monkeys/night monkeys)  

  • Nocturnal 

  • Only nocutrnal monkey  

  • One of two nocturnal haplorines  

  • Monogamous  

Ceropithecoidea Superfamily (Old world Monkeys)  

  • Distribution: Old world= Africa and Asia  

  • Ischail callosities  

  • For sitting on small branches.  

 

Colobinae (Leaf eating monkeys) 

 

  • Folivorous (Complext stomachs) 

  • Many species are large- bodied  

  • All diurnal  

  • Distribution: 

  • Africa- colobus  

  • Asia- lead and odd nosed monkeys  

  • Mostly arboreal  

 

  • Cercopithecinae 

 

  • Cheek pouch monkeys  

  • Baboons, macaques, guanos, mangabeys etc.  

  • Used to store food  

  • Hypothesized functions  

  • Reduce vulnerability to predation  

  • Increase feeding effieciney by avoiding completion  

  • Saliva breaks down some fruits 

 

  • Cercopithecinae 

  • Sexual swelling  

  • Not in all cercopithcines, most common in cercopithcines 

  • Visual cue for receptivity/ovularion  

  • Common in multi male/mutil female mating systems in catarrhines  

 

  • Ceropithecinea 

  • Distbrution: Africa and Asia  

  • All Diurnal  

  • Many species are large bodied  

  • Sexual dimporhosm common  

  • More territorial than other groups  

 

Sexually dimphoric traits 

  • Canines  

  • Size 

  • Coloriation  

  • Pelagre (Fur)  

 

Macaque  

  • Macaques are the mist widely distributed non human primate 

  • Only non human primate in Europe  

  • In Japan they often live in very cold area, earning tem the na,e of snow monekeys  

Hominoidea 

  • Distribution: Humans; global  

  • Non human apes: Africa and Asia  

  • Larger body size 

  • 2. No external tail 

  • 3. Short trunk 

  • 4. Arms that are longer than legs  

  • (except humans) 

  • 5. Shoulder modifications 

  • 6. More complex behaviour 

  • 7. More complex brain 

  • 8. > infant care 

The Apes 

  • Great apes: Chimpanzeee and Bonobo, orangutan, human  

  • Sub-Saharan african/asia  

  • Lesser apes; Gibbons and siamangs  

  • Southeast Asia 

  • Main Diffrence is Size! 

Hominidae Family  

  • Pongidade (Oranguatans)  

  • Hominane  

  • Gorilla  

  • Pan (Chimps and bonobos) 

  • Homo (humans)  

  • Pongidae (orangutans) 

  • The only greate ape in Asia other than us \ 

  • Only found in Borneo and Sumatra 

  • Pondiae  

  • Arboreal  

  • Solitary 

  • Furgivouros  

  • Locomotion: Quadrumanous  

  • Flanged males can be suppressed to better their survival  

 

Hominide  Gorillas 

  • Largest extant primate  

  • Terrestrial knuckle- walker 

  • Folivoirs  

  • Groups= one large silverback male, a female adult females and offspring, alpha male is determined by the female.  

  • Recent evidence of tool use 

Pan bonobos  

  • Furgivours 

  • Low levels of aggression  

  • Sexual activity  

  • Sex outside of estrus 

  • GG rubbing  

Hominae: Pan 

  • Chimpanzees and bonobos 

  • Distrubution: Equatorial Africa 

  • Tressterial and arboreal 

  • Knuckle- walking  and facultivate bipedalism  

  • Omnivorous  

  • Hunt especially red colobis  

  • Tool use common  

  • Higher levels of aggression  

  • Terroir al (paramilitary patrols  

  • Males tightly bonded.  

 

Hylobatidae (Gibbons and siamangs) 

  • Lesser apes  

  • Distrubution: SE Asia  

  • Monogamousish  

  • Supsensory locomation  

  • Brichation  

  • Territorial - uses duets  

 

Humans  

  • Range: everywhere 

  • Only bipedeal ape 

  • Ape dental morphology, expect smaller canine 

  • Omnivouir diet  

  • Terrestrial ranges of activity and aggression  

  • Sex not exclusively for reproduction 

  • Navigate world using spoken language and cultural innovations 

  • Possible due to enchanted cognitive capacities.