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Chapter 5: Introduction to the Primates. Why do anthropologists study primates? To understand human evolution by: Homology The same adaptations in close relatives offer clues to design structures in ancestral and contemporary human populations (culture?) Analogy
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Chapter 5: Introduction to the Primates • Why do anthropologists study primates? • To understand human evolution by: • Homology • The same adaptations in close relatives offer clues to design structures in ancestral and contemporary human populations (culture?) • Analogy • How do other primates respond to the same and different environmental pressures?
Derived Traits • Opposable Thumbs • Nails (no claws) • Hind limb dominated locomotion • Reduced sense of smell • Increase importance of sight (stereoscopic vision) • Small litters • Large Brain • Unspecialized teeth
Two types (suborder): • Prosimians: VCL, Lemurs (Madagascar), Aya-ayes, Lorises, & Galagos. • Anthropoides: Old and New World Monkey and Apes (humans) (see table 5-3)
New World Monkeys • Marmosets and tamarins (small bodied) • Twins • Polyandry • Monogamous families with alloparental care • Others: • Howlers • Spider • Wooly • Squirrel • Capuchins (tool users) • Night monkeys (owl monkey) • others
Old World Monkeys • Colobus & Lagurs (harems) • Macaques, baboons & vervets (multi-male and multi-female, female phylopatry) • Apes • Lack tails • Bigger brains • Y-Shaped pattern on lower molar
Lesser apes: Gibbons and Siamangs (Asia, brachiators, Monogamous)
Great Apes: • Gorilla (Africa, polygamous harems)
Orangutans (Asia, solitary, home range, rape )
Common Chimps (Africa, promiscuous, multi-male and multi-female)
Bonobos “Pygmy Chimps” (Africa, very promiscuous, multi-male and multi-female, matriarchal)