Lecture 1 - What is a Primate? Why Study Primates?

• anthropology: study of humankind

  • viewed from perspective of all people and all times (including past and future)

  • 4 main subfields: biological, sociocultural (more contemporary), linguistic (languages), archaeology

    • primatologists are biological anthropologists trained in primatology

  • “most scientific of humanities and most humanistic of sciences” - Eric Wolf

• biological anth.: studies all aspects of human biology (past and present)

  • evolution and variation among humans (including past and present relatives)

    • paleoanth, bioarchaeology, forensic anth, primatology

• primatology: study of primates (living and extinct)

  • study environments, natural and built

  • characteristics, classification, genetics, ecology, behavior (sexual and social), biomed studies, conservation

• primates in anthropology

  • closest relatives of humans = part of humans’ history

    • closest morphologically and genetically

    • can learn about ourselves

  • can be used as models for human origins and behaviors (especially ancient humans)

• primates as mammals

  • metatheric: reproduce w/o placenta; i.e. marsupials

  • prototheric: reproduce by egg-laying and nursing young; i.e. monotremes

  • eutheric: reproduce w/ placenta and uterus

    • primates are in eutheria

• the primate order

  • defined best by adaptability

    • arboreal, evolutionary, behavioral tendencies

      • physical traits allow tree-living life

      • dietary plasticity to adapt to diets from various environments (e.g. in desert, Himalayas, coast; exploiting different environments to get food)

      • parental investment: parents expend time and energy for offspring’s benefit

        • parents play with offspring, etc.

        • biggest one, to Prof. McGehee

• humans as primates

  • genetic relation btwn humans and African apes

  • similar phenotypes, e.g. morphology, body shape

    • more similar to African apes than Asian apes

  • fossils and climate

    • fossil primate origins during Eocene period, hominoids evolved over Miocene period (first in Africa, then in Eurasia)

• human-primate common traits

  • primitive (ancestral) trait (P): evolutionary older trait inherited from an early ancestor → shared among descendants

    • e.g. pentadactyly

  • shared derived trait (SD): more recent evolutionary trait inherited from a relatively recent ancestor → shared among a few close taxa

    • modified from ancestral condition; diagnostic of particular lineages

    • e.g. presence or absence of tail

  • unique derived trait (UD): trait that is a unique adaptation of a species

    • e.g. bipedalism in humans (apes can walk on two legs but not for long)

• traits of:

  • old world monkeys:

    • prehensile hands (P)

    • nails (D)

    • tail (P)

    • prehensile feet (P)

  • apes:

    • prehensile hands (P)

    • nails (D)

    • no tail (SD)

    • prehensile feet (P)

  • humans:

    • prehensile hands (P)

    • nails (D)

    • no tail (SD)

    • non-prehensile feet (UD)

• primates in time: cladogram

  • LCA of all primates was probably 85-95 mya (late Cretaceous)

  • earliest fossil pro-/primates was ~55-65 mya (Paleocene/Eocene)

  • earliest fossil apes ~17-20 mya (Miocene)

• primate classification

  • 4000+ spp of mammals

  • 250+ spp of non-human primates

  • huge range in size, ecology, diet, body shape, behavior, locomotion, social organization, sexual dimorphism

    • mostly located near equator

• Primate Order classification

  • includes living and extinct

    • primisians, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, apes, humans

• traditional (gradistic) based on grades (looks) (not as important to know)

• evolutionary (cladistic) classification: based on clades (KNOW THIS ONE)

general primate characteristics

• defines primates, but not exclusive to all primates

  • arboreal ancestry

  • flexible bodies

  • opposability (most)

    • thumb can touch forefinger

  • acute eyesight

  • reduced sense of smell (many)

    • tradeoff for great vision

  • parental investment

  • sociality

  • large, complex brains\

trends in practicing primatology

• early studies: largely descriptive, ethnographic-like

  • focused on habituated wild primates

  • detailed, but difficult to make cross-spp comparisons

  • e.g. lay out food, let primates eat, and observe

  • grew out of anthropocentric interests

    • how are they like us?

    • early primatology sought to normalize “aggressive male” and “passive female” from chimp and baboon studies

• 1930s-40s: Clarence Ray Carpenter started sci. study of wild primates

• 1950s: Irven DeVore studied baboons w/ ethnographic methods

• 1960s: Louis Leakey sent the “Tri-mates” to study great apes

  • Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas

  • big step in the evolution of primatology

• 1960s: prim. became more quantitative focused

  • behavior was recorded in standardized and systematic ways

    • allowed for comparison across individuals, over time, and across spp

      • used sampling schedules to record activity, instead of observer’s interest

    • evolutionary theory was used to interpret why primates behave in a way

    • systematic data collection + theory → problem-oriented prim.

• behavioral ecology: development of evolutionary principles to understand adaptive advantages of behavior under different ecological conditions

• focus is now long-term/longitudinal whenever possible

• longitudinal data on same subjects is fundamental to understanding ecology of plant/animal spp over time

  • some baboon and chimp spp have been studied since 1950s

  • changes are tracked over generations of animals, with any environmental change that can affect behavior

• conservation and understanding human/spp interactions is key for survival

• ethical issues relating to primate survival and well-being