FINAL Review Flashcards
Opposable Thumbs
Refers to primates thumb, in that it can touch each of the four fingertips, enabling a grasping ability (both power and precision grips)
Diurnal
Refers to those organisms that normally are awake and active during day-light hours
Dental formula
the numerical description of a species teeth, listing the number, in one quadrant of the jaws, of incisors, canines, premolars, and molars
Tooth comb
Anterior teeth (incisors and canines) that have been tilted forward, creating a scraper
Prehensile tail
a tail that acts as a kind of hand for support in trees, common in New World Monkeys
Brachiators
organisms that move by brachiation, or arm-swinging
Polygynous
a diffrence in a physical attribute between members of a species
Dimorphism
a diffence in a physical attribute between members of a species
Polyandrous
refers to a social group that includes one reproductively active female, several adult makes, and their offspring
Sexual selection
the frequency of traits that change due to those traits attractiveness to members of the opposite sex
Kin selection
Altruistic behaviors that increase the donor’s inclusive fitness, that is, the fitness of the donor’s relatives
Bilophodont molars
refers to lower molars, in Old World Monkeys, that have two ridges
Y-5 Molars
hominoids pattern of lower molar cusps
Habituation
you transform their (primates) behavior by making them tolerate your presence
Phylogeny
Evolutionary relationships among organisms; important basis for identifying and classifying organisms
Taxonomy
the classification of organisms into a system that reflects degree of relatedness
Analogous characters
Similar traits due to convergent evolution, not genetic relation
Homologous characters
Similar traits due to common descent
Ancestral characters
Homologous characters that appear early in the evolution of a lineage
Derived characters
Homologous traits that appear later in the evolution of a lineage
Anthropoidea
Includes both Platyrrhines (New World Monkeys) and Catarrhines (Old World Monkeys); exhibit larger brains, higher levels of sexual dimorphism, more social complexity, enclosed bony eye-sockets, and fewer teeth
Prosimian
Suborder of primates that exhibit a large reliance on sense of smell, have a combination of nails ad claws, lack complex social behaviors, are mostly nocturnal, and most have tooth combs
Catarrhine
(an infraorder); category pertains to Old World Monkeys and Apes. It is characterized by a wide range of habitats throughout Africa and Asia, but mostly live in tropics or subtropics. The primates in this group can be either terrestrial or arboreal
Platyrrhine
(an infraorder); category of New World Monkeys, word stems from “flat nose” these monkeys are found in the New World (Americas), and spend a lot of time in the trees. New World Monkeys are the only group that can exhibit prehensile tails. Their dental formula is 2133, with an extra premolar compared to catarrhines
Hominoid
(superfamily); includes lesser and Great Apes; no members of this group have tails
Folivore
a herbivore that specializes in eating leaves
Fossil
Remains of once-living organisms that have wholly or partially transformed into rock through a long process of chemical replacement
Taphonomy
The study of the deposition of plant or animal remains and the environment condition affecting their preservation
Stenod Law of Superposition
The principle that the lower in stratum, the older the age of each successive layer
Relative Dating
The arrangement of artifacts or events in a sequence relative to one another but without ties to calendrically measures time
Absolute Dating
The determination of the age of an object with reference to a specific timescale, such as a fixed calendar or in years before present (BP), based on measurable physical or chemical qualities or associations with written records; also called chronometric dating
Generic Dating
Method of dating using DNA in order to determine a chronology showing the amount of time since two species diverged in their evolution (the molecular clock)
Arboreal Hypothesis
The proposition that primates unique suite of traits is an adaptation to living in trees
Visual Predation Hypothesis
The proposition that unique primate traits arose as adaptations to prying on insects and small animals
Angiosperm Radiation Hypothesis
The proposition that certain primate traits occurred in response to the availability of fruit and flowers following the spread of angiosperms
Sivapithecus
A genus of Miocene apes thought to be ancestral orangutans
Gigantopithecus
A genus of Miocene apes from Asia, the largest primate that ever lived
Honing complex in apes
The dental form in which the upper canines are sharpened against the lower third premolars when the jaws are opened and closed
Piltdown Hoax
Hoax in which bone fragments of a modern ape paired with human skull were passed off as evidence of the earliest human ancestor as a “missing link”
Oldowan Complex
2.5 mya, the stone tool culture associated with late gracile and robust australopithecines and early Genus Homo
- includes primitive chopper tools (cores, flakes, and hammerstones). Used for hunting, confrontational scavenging, and passive scavenging
Acheulean Complex
1.5 mya - 250 kya, the stone tool culture associated with Homo erectus, including handaxes and other types of stone tools; more refined than the earlier Oldowan tools
Handaxe
The most dominant tool in the Acheulean complex, bifacial symmetrically worked pear-shaped stone tool characterized by a sharp edge for both cutting and scraping
Wallace Line
Deep water trench representing an abrupt limit of distribution for many major animal groups including Homo erectus
Movius Line
a theoretical line proposed by Movius; the limits of Acheulean handaxe technology; likely bamboo or other perishable tool technologies on the other side of this line
Mousterian Tools
the stone tool culture in which Neandertals produced tools using the Levallois technique