Lecture 15 - Primates

Question 1

What is a Primate (4 traits)

Answer 1

Prosimians and Anthropoidea, mostly arboreal (living in trees), hands and feet that are efficient at grasping, flattened nails instead of claws

Question 2

What is a Prosimian? (4 traits)

Answer 2

Paraphyletic group, mostly small-bodied, arboreal, mostly nocturnal

Question 3

What types of prosimians are there? (3 types)

Answer 3

Lemurs/lorises, pattos, tarsiers

Question 4

Lemurs traits (3)

Answer 4

Live in madagascar, nocturnal and diurnal, most are omnivorous

Question 5

Lorises traits (4)

Answer 5

Native to Southeast Asia, nocturnal, some are insectivores (mostly eat insects), some are frugivores (mostly eat fruit)

Question 6

Tarsiers traits (3)

Answer 6

Native to Southeast Asian islands, nocturnal, the only extant entirely carnivorous primates

Question 7

Pattos traits (4)

Answer 7

Native to Africa, nocturnal, eat fruits and insects, vestigial index finger

Question 8

Anthropoid types (4)

Answer 8

New World Monkeys, Old World Monkeys, Gibbons, Hominidae

Question 9

What is a New World Monkey? (3 traits)

Answer 9

Native to Central and South America, have prehensile tails (tails adapted to grasp objects), lineage moved to South America around 40 mya

Question 10

What is an Old World Monkey? (3 traits)

Answer 10

Native to Africa and Asia, Do not have prehensile tails, more closely related to Apes than the New World Monkeys

Question 11

What is a Gibbon? (3 traits)

Answer 11

Known as the Lesser Apes, Lack tails, Native to Southeast Asia

Question 12

What is a Hominid? (6)

Answer 12

Includes orangutans, gorillas, bonobos, chimps, humans, all of whom lack tails

Question 13

What is an orangutan? (3 traits)

Answer 13

Includes two species, native to Borneo and Sumatra (southeast Asian Islands), Quadrupedal locomotion

Question 14

What is a Gorilla? (4 traits)

Answer 14

Include the Western and Eastern gorilla, native to tropical Africa, largest extant hominids, quadrupedal locomotion

Question 15

What is a Chimpanzee? (4 traits)

Answer 15

Common chimpanzee and bonobo, native to tropical Africa, the closest living relatives of humans, quadrupedal locomotion

Question 16

What is a Hominin? (3 traits)

Answer 16

Homo sapiens and more than 20 extinct bipedal relatives, hominins diverged from Chimpanzees in Africa between 6 and 7 mya, Bipedalism is a synapomorphy of hominins

Question 17

Hominin genera include (6)

Answer 17

Homo, Paranthropus, Australopithecus, Ardipithecus, Orronin, Sahelanthropus

Question 18

Ancestor of Homo

Answer 18

Australopithecus (a paraphyletic group)

Question 19

Characteristics of ancient hominins (5)

Answer 19

Sloped faces, prominent brow ridge, robust jaws, large teeth, relatively small brains

Question 20

Characteristics of Homo (5)

Answer 20

Flatter faces, reduced brow ridge, less robust jaws, smaller teeth, large brain

Question 21

Hominin lineages (3)

Answer 21

Evolved in Africa, brain size and body size greatly increased in the lineage leading to the humans, human culture evolved

Question 22

Evolution of Homo Sapiens (4)

Answer 22

Evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago, some left Africa 60,000 years ago, h. neanderthalensis and h. erectus were still present in Europe and Asia at this time, our species may have driven the other ones to extinction

Question 23

Evolution of Primates (5)

Answer 23

1. Nocturnal lifestyle
2. Eyes in front of face; grasping hands and feet; arboreal lifestyle; fingers and toenails
3. Diurnal lifestyle
4. Loss of tail
5. Bipedal locomotion, feet for walking instead of grasping, reduced hair