Non Human Primates

Monkey, any of a large and varied group of mammals of the primate order. The term monkey includes all primates that do not belong to the categories human, ape, or prosimian; however, monkeys do have certain common features. All are excellent climbers, and most are primarily arboreal. Nearly all live in tropical or subtropical climates. Unlike most of the prosimians, or lower primates, they are almost all day-active animals. Their faces are usually flat and rather human in appearance, their eyes point forward, and they have stereoscopic color vision. Their hands and feet are highly developed for grasping; the big toes and, where present, the thumbs are opposable. Nearly all have flat nails. Monkeys habitually sit in an erect posture. Unlike the apes, most cannot swing arm-over-arm (the spider monkey is an exception) but move about in trees by running along the branches on all fours; their skeletal structure is similar to that of other four-footed animals. Monkeys live in troops of up to several hundred individuals and travel about in search of food, having no permanent shelter. As in apes and humans, the female has a monthly reproductive cycle, and

The Australopithecine are some of the earliest known hominids and they embody many characteristics that are associated with bipedalism. Bipedalism is a highly specialized and unusual form of primate locomotion that sets modern humans apart from all other living primates as we are the only extant obligate bipeds. Many evolutionary biologists and paleoanthropologists have devoted innumerable research hours to attempting to understand this unique form of locomotion and how it evolved. A number of interdependent morphological adaptations occurred over a long period of time to solve challenges posed by habitual bipedalism. As a result, there are obvious differences that exist between early and late hominin species.

Experiments and research on non-human primates has helped advance the fields of biology and medicine. The experiments and research done on primates often plays a major role in testing the safety of new drugs, research on understand how the brain works, and research on how to prevent infections disease in humans. Thanks to research done with animals, medical advances are continuously made. In some way, all humans benefit from animal research. Non-human primates are a group of mammals that consists of monkeys, apes, chimpanzees, lemurs and others. Monkeys are then divided into two smaller groups known as Old World monkeys and New World monkeys. New World monkeys are native of Africa and Asia. Old World monkeys originate from Central and South

The first primate like mammals should that they started to evolve in the early Paleocene Epoch and the beginning of the Cenozoic Era. The primates were roughly similar to squirrel and tress shrews in the size and appearance. Fragmentary fossil evidence that was found in Asia, North Africa, and in North America suggest that the primates have adapted a arboreal way of life in the warm, moist climates. The fossils show that these primates had a great sense of eye sight and good hand and feet coordination for climbing trees. With the end of the Eocene Epoch many of the

From the trees to the grasses to the microbes to the animals, all life on earth is interconnected. Just as the trees are connected to the microbes in the dirt, the climate is connected to every living thing on this planet. The success of animals has always depended on the success of plants, known as the producers in the food supply chain. The changing climate has had a powerful effect upon evolution, including the evolution of primates. This essay explores the proliferation and the demise of primate species from the Paleocene Epoch to the Miocene Epoch by comparing and contrasting the physical and behavior differences between the primates of each period and how the ecological conditions of the period allowed for their selection.

This paper will discuss primate morphology for the Lemur catta, also known as the ring tailed lemur, what characterizes them as primates, how they react in their environment, and their social and adaptive behaviors in that environment. The Lemur catta and it is only found in the island of Madagascar, as well as off the coast of southeast Africa. In Madagascar, they reside in the southeastern portion anywhere from sea level, up to 8530 feet high. Their environment consists mainly of tropical forested area in the proximity of nine forests: Andohahela, Andringitra, Ankilitelo, Berenty, Beza Mahafaly, Isalo, Tsimanampetsotsa, Tsirave, and Zombitse (Godfrey et al. 1998). According to the National Primate Research Center (pin.primate.wisc.edu), they also have a variety of habitats for example rainforests, spiny bush forests, subalpine, deciduous, and gallery. However, a lot of their habitat has been affected by constant human contact; agricultural clearing, deforestation, and burning to produce charcoal. The Lemur catta need to be able to hide in the forest and they are not very good at adapting to new environments so they depend a lot on the forested areas. The southwest part of Madagascar is very prone to droughts and they can have serious effects on the habitats of ring-tailed lemurs and other mammals. I will discuss what makes the Lemur catta a primate and the primate characteristics that they possess. Then, I will express the specialized, physical characteristics that they

NOVA scienceNOW : 41 - First Primates is a video that mainly talks about Primates who are ancient ancestors of human beings. Primates came out on the Earth 55million years ago when dinosaurs extinct due to collision between an immense comet and the Earth. Plesiadapiform, which is a possibly the first ancestor of primates and human beings, firstly evolved with a mouse-size organism during 10 million years. It existed during the 10 million year with diverse evidences that can show its validity of first ancester of primates. Nails of plesiadapiforms is a critical evidence that they are early ancestors of primates. Secondary proof is a tube-like structure which is found in the middle ear. It happens to be a tube for a huge vessel that goes to the

Animals play a very significant role in medical advancements for human’s sake. Medical researches usually use monkeys as they are popularly known as nonhuman primates (NHPs). This method is used because NHPs has countless similarities to mankind especially in physiology, neuroanatomy, reproduction, development, cognition, and social complexity. Sample of animal research who won a Nobel Prize in 1954 were John F. Enders, Thomas H. Weller, and Frederick C. Robbins. They developed the technique of taking the kidney directly from monkeys and culturing it in the test tube. These cell cultures were then used by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin on giving cure to polio virus. This is now a vaccine called poliomyelitis. More and more researchers employed monkeys as tests. Without this procedure, there will be no cure for Hepatitis-B and possible treatments of Parkinson’s disease. Moreover, there are aggressive brain experiments conducted in University of Utah, University of California-Scan

Anaplo et al. conducted a study on the body structures of vervets and blue monkeys by comparing the two primate species’ brachial, crural, and intermembral indices (2005). The brachial index is the ratio of the radius to humerus length, the crural index is defined as the tibia/femur ratio, and the intermembral index is the ratio of the brachial index to crural index (Anapol et al., 2005). This study referred to previous research that concluded that an inverse relationship exists between guenon’s intermembral index and the percentage of a species’ locomotion occupied by leaping (Anapol et al., 2005). In this particular study, it was discovered that when a quadruped that does not leap is compared to one that does, the leaping quadruped has a lower intermembral index (Anapol). These studies suggest that limb indices are indicative of locomotive

A primate is a level of classification of organisms with similar characteristics Primates are animals so they are classified in the animal kingdom. They are vertebrates so they fall under the phylum of chordate. They are also mammals so they are in class Mammalia. Primates all belong to the primate order because they all have opposable thumbs, binocular vision, and arm rotation. Opposable thumbs allow primates to grasp objects and use them as tools. Binocular vision occurs when the eyes are place in the front of the skull and allows one to see objects in front. Primates have arms that can rotate around in their sockets to swing from trees. Examples of primates include lemurs, tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans. There has been continuous change

Around five to seven million years ago in Africa, a man/ape primate ventured about in the wooded areas. (Morgan, 1982) “My thesis is that a branch of this primitive ape-stock was forced by competition from life in the trees to feed on the sea-shores and to hunt for food, shellfish, sea-urchins etc.”, quoted from Alister Hardy. For the need of food, shelter, space, and resources, the hominid relocated from its traditional environment of the tree, toward water. As evident today, many species of monkeys and apes seek these resources in trees. According to Elaine Morgan, the man/ape primates that stayed and continued to survive in the wooded environment millions of years ago, are the direct ancestors of today’s monkey and ape primates, while

The fossils of the Ardipithecus ramidus have many characteristics of the apes. The biggest difference between the lemonian ape and other apes is that they walk upright with their feet. Later, East Africa continued to dry, the forest into a grassland. Their descendants in the forest to complete the feet upright ready to walk, but also adapted to the next new environment. Therefore, the step of the Ardipithecus ramidus is closely related to the present civilization.

A set of 69 fossilized footprints in a layer of volcanic ash shows us that one of the individuals was larger than the other and that the big toe was displayed inwards, like that of hominids and not splayed outwards like monkeys. Long arms characteristic of apes were present, which gave the assumption that individuals climbed trees in order to forage.

The environment of A. africanus influenced its diet. While its limb proportions suggest a forested environment, the evidence of bipedality in its

Chimpanzees communicate through sounds, and gestures. These chimpanzees in the wild have systems that variates and create local dialects. Chimpanzees are our closest ancestors since we share about 99 percent of our genetic material with them. Chimpanzees have been trialed and it looks like they are capable to have language similar to human beings. Moreover, research suggest that chimpanzees in fact do communicate using human language such as American Sign Language (ASL). ASL is a phonological system in which it “organize the physical realization of speech” (7). This great discovery was noted by Allen and Beatrix when they explored Washoe, “an infant common chimpanzee” (8). that was trained using gestural signs from ASL. Another way chimpanzees