The Living primates is a presentation about the development of primates as the origin of human race. their categories, classifications, what are they alike that has distinctive human characteristics.

1. The Living Primates
• Understanding the concepts of
primatology
• Common Primate Traits
• Classification of Primates
• Various Primates
• Explanations of Variable Primate
Adaptations
• Distinctive Human Traits

2. Primatology
• The goal of this study is to understand how
different primates have adapted automatically
and behaviorally to their environments.
• The results of such studies may help us to
understand the behavior and evolution of the
human primate.

3. Common Traits
• All Primates belong to the class Mammalia,
and they share all the common features of
mammals.
• Humans are the exempted mammals, since
mammals are covered with dense hair or fur.
• Mammals are warm-blooded. The body
temperature is more or less constantly warm
and usually higher than that of the air around
them.

4. Common Traits
• Almost all mammals give birth to live young
that develop to a considerable size within the
mother and are nourished by suckling from
their mother’s mammary glands.
• The young have relatively long period of
dependence on adults after birth.

5. Physical Features
• Many skeletal features of the primates reflect
on arboreal existence.
– Areas and important parts of the bones are great
supporters of the body.
– the limbs are flexible, built to withstand both
pushing and pulling forces.
– The clavicle also gives primates great freedom of
movement, allowing their shoulders to move up
and down, back and forth.

6. Physical Features
• Omnivores
– Primates eat all kinds of food, including insects,
small animals, fruits, vegetables, grass and roots.
• The teeth of the primates: molars and
premolars for chewing.
• The front teeth: incisors and canines are
specialized in lower primates.
• All primates have prehensile and opposale
thumbs.

7. Physical Features
• Most primates’ vision are characterized as
stereoscopic or depth vision.
• Large brain relative to body size.
• Primates reproductive system;
– Males have pendulous penis
– Females of most primates have two nipples in the
chest.
– Uterus is constructed to hold single fetus only

8. Physical Features/common traits
• Forward-facing eyes
• Grasping hands and feet
• Rotating forearm (referring to the ulna and
radius)
• Relatively larger brain; reduction in sense of
smell (olfactory bulbs); and expansion of
primary visual area.

9. Social Features
• According to anthropologists; Primates, as
described as diurnal, developed many
patterns of social behavior.
– Dependency and Development in a Social Context
– Primates at Play
– Learning from others

10. Dependency and Development in A
Social Context
• Social relationships begin with the mother and
other adults during the fairly long dependency
period of primates.
• The prolonged dependency of infant monkeys
and apes probably offers an evolutionary
advantage.

11. Primates At Play
• Anthropologist like Harlow, provided an
explanation about social learning in young
primates.
• Play is important for learning.
• It provides practice for the physical skills
necessary or useful in adulthood.

12. Learning from Others
• Among humans, children imitate others, and
adults often deliberately teach the young.

13. Classification of Primates

14. Prosimians
• They depend much on smell for information
than do anthropoids.
• They typically have more mobile ears,
whiskers, long snouts and relatively fixed facial
expressions.

15. Lemur-like forms
• They are quadrupeds.
• Their mode of locomotion is vertical clinging and
leaping.
• They are usually vegetarians, fruit eaters, leaves,
barks and flowers.
• Most of them are nocturnal.
• they are mostly living with 60 members.
• Most of the females are dominant than males
particularly over access of food.

17. Loris-like Forms
• They are all nocturnal and aboreal.
• They are mostly found in both Southeast Asia
and sub-Saharan Africa.
• Subdivided as Loris and bushbabies(galagos).
• Their locomotion is more likely on hopping on
the ground.
• Female adults and children stay together thus,
male disperse.

19. Tarsiers
• They are nocturnal, tree-living tarsiers, and can
only be found in the islands of Philippines and
Indonesia.
• They are usually insect eaters and sometimes
capture and eat other small animals like lizards.
• They get their name from the elongated tarsal
bones.
• Male and female sing together at night in order
to advertise their territories.

20. Tarsiers
• Anthropologists classified tarsiers into two:
– Strepsirhines (includes lemurs and loris)
– Haplorhines(includes tarsiers and anthropoids)

21. Anthropoids
• The sub-order of the group anthropoids
includes the humans, apes, and monkeys.
• They shared common several traits in varying
degree:
– Rounded braincase
– Reduced, nonmobile ears
– Relatively small, flat faces instead of
muzzles(covering).
• They have highly efficient reproductive
system.

22. Anthropoids
• Anthropoids order is divided into two:
– PLATHYRRHINES
– CATARRHINES
• PLATHYRRHINES
– Have broad, flat-bridged noses with nostrils facing
outward
– These monkeys are usually found in the New World,
(in Central and South America.)
• CATARRHINES
– Have narrow noses with nostrils facing downward.
– These includes the monkeys of the old World(Africa,
Asia, and Europe), as well as apes and humans.

23. Plathyrrines

24. Catarrhines

25. Anthropoids
• OLD WORLD MONKEYS
– Also known as cercopithecoids
– Related more closely to humans than to the New
World monkeys.
• NEW WORLD MONKEYS
– They possess three premolars than the old world
– They are considered as prehensile(grasping tail)
– Two main families are the marmosets and
tamarins and the cebid monkeys.

26. The Hominoids: APES and HUMANS
• Divided into three groups:
– Hylobates(the lesser apes/gibbons and siamangs)
– Pongids(the great apes/orangutans, gorillas,
chimpanzees)
– Hominids ( the humans)

27. Hylobates

28. Pongids

29. Hominids

30. Distinctive Human Traits
PHYSICAL TRAITS
• Only humans consistently walk erect on two
feet.
• Comparing with the other anthropoids,
pongids walk on two feet but only for short
periods.
• All other primates require thick, heavy
musculature to hold their heads erect
• Humans missed this thick musculature; our
heads are balanced on top of our spinal
columns.

31. Distinctive Human Traits
• The human brain is more larger than of the
apes.
• Humans may engage to sex every time of the
year.
• Apes and other pongids only engage
periodically.

32. Distinctive Human Traits
BEHAVIORAL TRAITS
• Tool making and inventiveness
• Language

33. Distinctive Human Traits
OTHER HUMAN TRAITS
• Humans are one of the primates who are
terrestrial.
• Humans have the longest dependency period
of any of the primates, requiring extensive
parental care up to 20 years.
• Humans have system of in having division of
labor by gender in food-getting and food-
sharing in adulthood.
• Humans have more gender-role specialization.