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Primates Primate : group of mammals that include lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans. Traits of Primates: Flexible shoulder & hip joints Opposable thumbs Vision Brain volume Arm movement Flexible joints Feet. Primate Origins 1. Prosimian like primates a. small, present-day
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Primates Primate: group of mammals that include lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans
Traits of Primates: • Flexible shoulder & hip joints • Opposable thumbs • Vision • Brain volume • Arm movement • Flexible joints • Feet
Primate Origins 1. Prosimian like primates a. small, present-day b. lemurs, aye-ayes, tarsier c. tropical forests d. Purgatorius – earliest primate fossil that lived 66 million years ago. Resembled a squirrel.
Primate Origins • 2. Humanlike Primates (Anthropoids) • These include: monkeys & hominoids
Monkeys • New World monkeys • prehensile tail used as 5th limb • 2. Old World monkeys • larger, no prehensile tail, live on ground or in trees
Apes & Humans (Hominids) • complex brains, lack tails, larger, different skeletal features, more upright posture • apes: long, muscled forelimbs for climbing, live in social groups • humans: larger brain, walk upright
II. Human Ancestry • 5-8 million years ago in Africa • Hominids / African apes • Few fossils; DNA evidence • bipedal
BIPEDAL: foramen magnum: opening in the skull through which the spinal cord passes as it leaves the brain. Head upright and not slanted
Australopithecine: early hominids that lived in Africa & apelike & humanlike characteristics
Example: Raymond Dart a. 1924 discovered a young hominid -Australopithecus meaning “southern ape of Africa”
Example: Donald Johanson a. 1974 found oldest known & nearly complete australopithecine 1) “Lucy” 2) 3-5 million years ago
Modern humans 1. 1964 Louis & Mary Leakey found humanlike skull a. classified in genus homo b. Homo habilis “handy man”, used tools
2. Homo erectus “upright man” a. larger brain & b. more humanlike face
3. archaic Homo sapiens a. Neanderthals 1) 35,000 – 100,000 2) lived in caves, larger brains, religious views, spoken language
b. Cro-Magnons: possible decedents of modern humans, lived 35,000- 40,000 years ago
Possible Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon were sexually active, producing modern humans. Evidence: features on some modern individuals.