Primate Diversity

Strepsirhine 

  • Long snouts, wet noses, divided upper lip

  • Rely more on olfaction than other primates

  • Nocturnal (most)

  • Eyes reflect light (have tapetum, reflectiveness)

  • Solitary

  • Smaller body size

  • Smaller relative brain size

  • Faster life histories

  • Lemurs and lorises

Example lemurs

  • Only found in Madagascar, small bodied, nocturnal, solitary, reliant on scent

  • Aye-aye

  • Indri

  • Ring-tailed lemurs

    • Unusually social for a strepsirrhine, primarily diurnal, females generally dominate males

  • Slow loris

    • Only venomous mammal

    • Flesh rotting bite used in territorial defense

    • Single offspring

    • Nocturnal

    • Move really slow

  • Tarsier

    • Strepsirhine traits

      • Nocturnal, small bodied, solitary

    • Haplorhine traits

      • Lack tapetum

      • Huge eyes

      • Dry noes

    • Elongated tarsus, vertical clinging and leaping, insectivorous 

Haplorhine

  • Short snouts, dry noses, single upper lip

  • Diurnal (except tarsier and owl monkey)

  • Eyes lack a tapetum

  • Social (most)

  • Larger body size

  • Larger relative brain size

  • Slower life histories 

  • Monkeys and apes

Examples: now both groups as monkeys

Platyrrhines (new world monkeys: in central and south america)

  • Broad nose, with outward-facing nostrils

  • Smaller body size

  • 3 premolars in each quadrant of mouth

  • All are arboreal (live in trees)

  • Some, but not all have a grasping prehensile tail

  • Most have 2 color vision

Example: 

  • Ceboidea

    • Mostly arboareal small to medium bodies, monogamous to groups of 500 (lots of diversity), prehensile tails

    • Howlers, uakari, spider monkeys, owl monkeys (nocturnal), tamarins (always have twins), 

    • Capuchins: prehensile tails, highly gregarious and intelligent, biggest brain relative to body size of any nonhuman prime, tool use, and social conventions

    • Have learned behaviors




Catarrhines (old world monkeys: africa and asia)

  • Narrow nose, downward facing nostrils

  • Larger body size

  • 2 premolars in each quadrant of mouth

  • Arboreal and terrestrial 

  • None have prehensile tails

  • All have 3 color vision

Cercoputhecoidea

  • Mostly terrestrial, omnivorous, strong linear dominance hierarchies (matrilineal), strict matrilines, cheek pouches, sexual coloration and swellings, large social groups

  • Baboons, mandrills, maccaques, vervets, geunons, colobines, 

  • Have a tail, smaller than apes, fixed shoulder joints, quadrapedal, above branch locomotion

  • Geladas

    • Line in largest group of any nonprimate

    • Grass eating primate

    • Wide rank of vocalization, including sounds reminiscent of human speech

    • Fission-fusion, multi level society

    • Chest patch

Hominoidea

  • Apes

    • No tail

    • Large bodied, large barrel chest, flexible shoulder joints, 

    • brachiators, below branch, (swinging with arms)

    • larger brains

  • Hylobatidae (not chimpanzees and gorillas, look more like monkeys but not)

    • Gibbons and siamang

    • Brachiators, lesser apes, monogamous pairs, found in SE asia

  • Hominidae

    • Great apes, largest living primates with long life histories

    • Larger brains and intelligence (tool use, culture, communication)

    • Solitary to large social groups; friendships

    • Highly social (differentiated relationships, hunting, cooperation)

    • All endangered or critically endangered

Genus Pongo

  • Orangutans (least related to us)

  • Most arboreal of great apes

  • Hips are like shoulders (high flexibility)

  • Mostly solitary

  • 2 male mating strategies (dominant: develop flanges (cheek pads that may amplify sound), hormonally cute?, can mate with whatever female he wants vs sneaky (don’t develop secondary sexual characteristics, don’t scare away females and just go up to them)

    • Is a flexible strategy; can lose/gain the flanges

  • Slowest apes to reproduce

    • Lactation period: 7-8 years

Genus Gorilla

  • 4 subspecies

    • Mountain gorilla, western gorillas, western lowland gorilla, cross river gorilla

  • Largest great ape

  • Knuckle walkers

  • Garem family groups with dominant silverback

  • folivores/frugivores

  • Large sexual dimorphism (males 2x size of females), males have large sagittal crest\

Genus Pan (diverged 6-8 mya)

Diverged again 1.5-2 mya to chimpanzees and bonobos

  • Closest living relatives (98.7% of DNA)

  • Highly cooperative and highly aggressive

  • Cognitively complex

  • Chimpanzees are more robust

  • Bonobos are taller

  • Similar physically

Chiimpanzees

  • Fission-fusion society (leave and join different groups throughout the day) (most communities up to 20-50 members)

  • Mostly frugivorous but supplement with meat (love meat), 

  • cooperative and highly aggressive

  • Territory defense and border patrol results in brutal killing of outgroup members

  • Male dominated, male bonded, strong male alliances

  • Widespread tool use for multiple purpose

  • Population specific patterns (cultures)



Bonobos

  • Only found south of Congo ricer

  • Less sexual dimorphism, more gracile

  • Females form strong bonds and alliances against males 

  • Females can be dominant to males

  • Reduced male hierarchies and aggression

  • Less outgroup aggression

  • Socio-sexual behaviors as glue for social bonds to reduce stress

  • Much less tool use, although adept tool-users in captivity

  • Have sex with everyone, not monogamous