Penn Anth 003 Midterm

-5 digit grasping hands/feet
-Sensitive pads on the 5 digits
-Have nails instead of claws
-erect posture tendencies
-flexible limbs
-larger cranium
-forward facing eys enclosed in sockets
-enhanced sense of vision
-reduced sense of smell
-highly social
-smaller number of offspring
-longer parental care/developmental stage
-Generalized dentition, omnivorous.

Prosimians (lesser primates)

3 groups of Anthropoids (higher primates):

-New World Monkeys
-Old World Monkeys
-Apes/Hominoids

Tend to be nocturnal, arboreal and insectivorous. Mostly solitary. Have huge eyes, large mobile ears, moist noses, sharp insectivore teeth. Rely on high sense of smell. Share features of early mammals of Mesozoic age.

Lemurs - From Madagascar. Have dental tooth comb.
(Ring-tailed Lemurs are most fascinating and adaptable. Hands are humanlike as they spend alot of time on ground)

Tarsier - from SE Asia. Eyes and sockets are enormous. Have elongated tarsals in foot making them able to leap easily.

Lorises - live in Africa and SE Asia. Have tooth comb.

Galagos (bushbaby)- from Africa. They are omnivorous and nocturnal. Part of the Loris

they are the higher primates: including monkeys, apes and humans. Tropical animals, social and daylight active. Terrestral and arboreal in adaptation. Diverse in food preferences.

Divided into 2 infraorders:
-Platyrrhini
-Catarrhini

Monkeys of the Americas.

Found from southern Mexico to N. Argentina. Are social and mostly diurnal (daylight active). Primarily arboreal, eats wide range of foods from insects to leaves.

Ex: Howlers, squirrel money, spider monkeys, marmosets and tamarins.

they are higher primates from Eurasia and Africa. All are tropical except macaques in Japan and N. Africa. They are adapted to life on the ground and occupy a large range of habitats.

Are divided into 2 superfamilies:
1. Hominoidea (apes of Africa and Asia including humans)

2. Cercopithecoidea (Old World Monkeys of Eurasia and Africa) including baboons, macaques and langurs.

all social and daylight active. Most successfull of primates. Inhabit savannas , woodlands, forests. Wide range of diets emphasizing vegitation. Have non-prehensile tails and ischial callosities (sitting pads). Have external displays showing ovulation.

Divided into 2 subfamilies:
1) Cercopithecoidea - includes baboons, guenon, macaques (characterized by omnivorous diet)

2) Colobinae - includes colobus, langurs, proboscis monkeys (characterized by folivorous diet; primarily mature leaves)

Primates closest to humans. Distinguished from the monkeys by having no tail, specialized traits in trunk, forelimbs for hanging from tree branches, suspensory hanging adaptation of hominoids may be related to food getting behavior while hanging from branches.

1) Lesser apes (Gibbons)
2) Asian Great Ape (Orangutan)
3) African Apes (Chimps, gorillas), and humans

Smallest of living apes, specialized anatomy for brachiating or under the branch swinging movement in trees (hook-like hands). Only ape to live in pair-bonded family groups like humans.

Only higher primate living a solitary existance. Adapted to a range of foods. Found in Borneo and Sumatra but fossil teeth show distribution in east Asia. Twice size of females (sexual dimorphism). Produce one baby at a time and will nurse till almost 7yoa. Seriously endangered.

Found in Central, East and West Africa. 98.6% genetically identical to humans and considered to be our closest living relative. Are in social groups of non-paired males and females. Mainly herbivores. Observeding eating insects and using tools to get them (ex. use a stone to open nut shells). Males hunt and eat 15 kinds of vertebrates including monkeys.

Also called pygmy chimps. Have longer graceful limbs. Spend more time in bipedal position. Like sweets and social groups are ruled by females (matriarchy). Have face to face sexual contact.

Largest of all primates. Endangered. Can be twice the body size of female. Completely herbivorous. Lives in groups of 10-15 led by a silverbacked male. Social organization composed of male and female gorillas and young. Quadrupedal knuckle walking stance.

Cebids and Marmosets

A tail that act as a kind of hand for support in trees, Common in New World Monkeys. Ex. spider monkey

the numerical description of a species' teeth, lising the number in one quadrant of the jaws, of incisors, canines, premolars and molars.

Prosimians - 2.1.3.3 upper and lower, except Tarsiers that has a lower of 1.1.3.3

New world monkeys 2.1.3.2 or 2.1.3.3 upper and lower

Old world monkeys and Great Apes - 2.1.2.3 upper and lower

Primate's early mammalian ancestors had a formula of 3.1.4.3 (more teeth than today's primates)

Most primates incisors are flat, vertically oriented and used to prepare food before being chewed by the premolars and molars. However, prosimians lower incisors and canines are elongated, crowded together and projecting forward forming a tooth comb creating a scraper.

1) horizontally oriented canine.
2) veritcal incisor-shaped canine appears only in humans.
3) The projecting, pointed canine appears in all monkeys and apes.

found in Old World Monkeys and apes in which the upper canines are sharpened against the lower third premolars when the jaw is closed.

Molars and premolars of primates have not had much evolutionary change. Used to grind and crush food.

Specialized attributes of some primates teeth reflect particular food preferences. Example. some primates have high pointed cusps on chewing surfaces of molars for puncturing and crushing insects. Others have crests on their molars, for shearing leaves. Many primates that eat fruit and seeds have low, round cusps on their molars for crushing and pulping.

Hominoids' pattern of lower molar cusps where the y-shaped groove is dominant in apes and humans.

refers to lower molars in Old World Monkeys that have 2 ridges.

anterior teeth thats been tilted forward creating a scraper. Useful for scraping or grooming fur. Possed by Lemurs and lorises.

The study of the deposition of an organism’s remains and the environmental conditions affecting their preservation.

The process by which the remains of organisms that have been wholly or paritally transformed into rock through a long process of chemical replacement. In the replacement process, the minerals in remains (such as calcium and phosphorus) are very gradually replaced with rock-forming materials like iron and silica. Because of this process, what is preserved is normally the hardest/most durable tissues like bones and teeth.

For human evolution, fossilization has been the result of natural forces acting on the remains resulting in scattered and very incomplete specimens. It is only about 115,000 years ago that deliberate burial of dead was introduced increasing the likelihood that organic materials would be preserved.

A record of fossils that represent the full range of living things from past to present. This helps form a complete picture of life in the past.
Representation is the crucial factor in creating a fossil record. The fuller and more representative the collection of fossils from specific animals and plants in any site, the richer will be our understanding of the various populations of these animals and plants within that site.

Relative dating is much more imprecise and often based on geological or faunal correlations or estimates of the geological age of the fossil deposits. Does not give a precise age for a sample but can be used to determine if one fossil is older or younger than another.

Provides ages in years before the present (ybp), and is usually the result of the use of an isotopic dating technique.
Radiocarbon (carbon-14) method, Potassium/Argon (K/Ar), ESR and TL.

the radiometric dating method in which the ratio of 14C to 12C is measured to provide an absolute date for organic carbon material (wood, shell, bone, charcoal) younger than 50,000 years. It is very reliable.

Discovered by American Chemist Willard Libby in 1949. Won nobel prize.

is based on the breakdown of an isotope of K into the stable gas Ar. This is a product of volcanic activity and can date fossils that are older than about 500,000 years.

both work the same way, measuring the number of electrons from cosmic radiation and radioactive decay that are trapped in crystalline impurities.
They both have dating ranges beyond carbon-14 and have been used to date fossils whose ages range between 40,000-800,000 years. They are considered reliable.