ANTH 102 Intro to Primates Notes

10/10/17 Lecture 10: Introduction to Primates

Types of Mammals
• Monotremes: egg-laying mammals
• Marsupials: pouched mammals
• Eutherian (placental) mammals: mammals with a placenta, fetus develops in the uterus

Eutherian (placental) mammals
 Carnivores (bears, dogs, cats)
 Perissodactyl (horses, rhinos)
 Artiodactyl (cows, pigs, hippos, camels, deer)
 Proboscid (elephants)
 Rodent (rats, squirrels, beavers)
 Chyroptera (bats)
 Insectivore (shrews, moles)
 Primates (lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, monkeys, apes, humans)


WHY STUDY PRIMATES?
We share many aspects of our morphology, physiology and development with other primates

Homology: Traits similar because of common ancestry
• Wild chimpanzees
– make tools
– hunt animals
– live in male-bonded groups
– Captive chimpanzees can acquire basic human language skills

Analogy: Similar traits through convergent evolution
Baboons live in similar environments to early hominids, can illustrate potential food sources, selective
pressures acting on primates living in African woodlands and grasslands

Primate characteristics
Grasping hands and feet
thumb, big toe opposable
Fingers, toes with nails, not claws
Sense of smell reduced
Visual sense well-developed
Small litters, gestation & juvenile periods long
Unspecialized molars
Large brains

Primate Adult Dentition
Incisors--flat--used for nipping
Canines--slashing, shearing (in humans similar to incisors)
Premolars--puncturing, some grinding
Molars—Grinding
Humans have same dental formula as OW monkeys, apes



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