Primatology is the study of primates and how they have adapted to their environments. There are two major primate groups: prosimians like lemurs and lorises, and anthropoids like monkeys, apes, and humans. Anthropoids are further divided into platyrrhines of South America, and catarrhines including Old World monkeys, apes, and humans. Characteristics of primates include features of the hands, legs, vision and large brains. Fossil evidence shows that early primates from 55 million years ago had traits like nails and grasping abilities suited for tree dwelling. The emergence of anthropoids is not well documented in the fossil record, but conditions

1. ANTHROPOLOGY 1
(THE LIVING PRIMATES)
Lecture 5

2. PRIMATOLOGY
• Is the study of primates
• Understand how different primates
have adapted to their environment
• Analyze the behavioral and evaluation
of the human primates

3. Classifications of Primates
2 Major Decent
1. Prosimians
 Lemurs, tarsiers, lorises
2. Anthropoids
 Monkeys, apes, hominids

4. Classifications of Primates
Suborders of Anthropoids
1. Platyrrhines (Monkeys of the New World)
2. Catarrhines
 Cercopithecoids (Old World Monkeys)
 Homicides (Apes and Humans)

5. ANTHROPOID APES
• Hylobates
 Gibbons
 Siamangs
• Orangutans
• Gorillas
• chimpanzees

6. CHARACTERISTICS OF
PRIMATES
1. 2 bones in lower part of the leg and
forearm
2. Collarbone
3. Grasping hands
4. Stereoscopic vision
5. Large brain

7. 6. Long maturation of the young
7. Degree of dependents on social life
and learning

8. DISTINCTIVE HUMAN TRAITS
1. Only humans can walk erectly with
2 feet
2. Bipedal
3. Large and complex brain
4. Omnivorours (molars and pre- molars are
so specialized)

9. 5. Have chins
6. Relatively hairless
7. Sexuality of human females
8. Spoken symbolic language

10. PRIMATE EVALUATION
• Requires the findings and evaluation
of fossil remains
• Fossil records are still incomplete
• Certainty of how primates evolved

11. 2 General ways to date fossils
• Using stratigraphy and associated
flora and fauna
• Certain chemical test in the sites

12. What can we learn from fossils?
• Can tell about an extinct animals
• Comparative anatomy to help
reconstruct missing skeletal pieces
• Much of the evidence comes from
the teeth along with the jaws.

13. The Early Primates
• Earliest primates appear in North
America, Europe, and Asia about 55
million years ago.
• The beginning of Eocene was warmer
and less seasonal than the Paleocene
• Tropical forest abounded

14. The Early Primates
Anatomy of the Eocene Primates
had many of the features of modern
primates
• Nails rather than claws
• Grasping
• Opposable first toe and bony around the side of
the eye socket
• Vertical clinging and leaping

15. Eocene prosimians not only
moved around the way modern
prosimians do some were similarly
skeletally to living prosimians

16. The group of prosimians appear in the
early Eocene.
• Omymyids
• Have many tarsier like features
• Very small
• No bigger than squirrels
• Adapids
• Have many lemur like features
• Kitten-and cat-sized

17. The Emergence of Anthropoids
• The anthropoids today- Monkeys, apes, and
humans are the most successful living
primates.
• Fossil record documenting the emergence
of the anthropoids
• Scarce
• No clear records

18. What conditions may have favored the
emergence of the primates?
• Proliferation of insects to an increase in
insectivores
• Mammals that ate the insects
• Some lived above the ground
• In woody habitat of bushes, shrubs, vines and
trees.

19. • Trees with large flowers and fruits evolved
• Exploitation in the woody habitat was
probably the key adoption in the emergence
of primates

20. The Miocene Anthropoids: Monkeys,
Apes and Hominids
• During Miocene Epoch
• 24 years ago
• Monkeys and apes clearly diverged in
appearance
• Numerous kinds appread in Asia, Europe, and
Africa.

21. • Early Miocene Epoch
• Temperature was considerately warmer than in
the Oligocene
• Late Miocene Epoch
• Conditions become drier
• About 8 mya the first hominid may have
appeared in Africa

22. • The influence about were hominids
emerged is based on the fact that
undisputedly hominids lived in East Asia.
• The inference is based not on the fossil
evidence but on comparative molecular and
biochemical analyses of modern apes and
humans.

23. Early Miocene
• Most of the fossils are described as proto-apes.
Middle Miocene to late Miocene
• The apes diversified and spread geographically
• Dryopithecus (Europe)
• Sivapithecus (Western Southern Asia)

24. • Fossil records does not tell us who the first
hominid was
• the biochemical and genetic analyses of
modern apes and humans suggest that the
hominid-ape split occurred during the late
Miocene (6 mya)