chapter 6: an overview of the primates

Question 1

primates

Answer 1

mammalian order of primates, includes lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans

Question 2

anthropoids

Answer 2

members of primate infraorder anthropoidea, includes monkeys, apes, and humans

Question 3

omnivorous

Answer 3

diet consisting of many kinds of foods, including plants, meat, and insects

Question 4

diurnal

Answer 4

active during day

Question 5

nocturnal

Answer 5

active during night

Question 6

stereoscopic vision

Answer 6

condition whereby visual images are, to varying degrees, superimposed; provides for depth perception or viewing the external environment in 3d; partly a function of structures in the brain

Question 7

binocular vision

Answer 7

overlapping visual fields provided by forward-facing eyes; essential to depth perception

Question 8

hemispheres

Answer 8

two halves of cerebrum connected by a dense mass of fibers; cerebrum = large rounded outer portion of the brain

Question 9

olfaction

Answer 9

sense of smell

Question 10

neocortex

Answer 10

more recently evolved portion of the brain involved in higher mental functions, composed of areas that integrate incoming sensory information

Question 11

sensory modalities

Answer 11

different forms of sensation; touch, pain, pressure, heat, cold, vision, taste, hearing, and smell

Question 12

arboreal

Answer 12

tree-living; adapted to life in trees

Question 13

adaptive niche

Answer 13

organism’s entire way of life: where it lives, what it eats, how it gets food, how it avoids predators, etc

Question 14

dental formula

Answer 14

numerical device that indicates number of each type of tooth in each quadrant of upper and lower jaws