Primate Anatomy : Primate Primates

Kavanagh, M. & Morris, D. (1983). Complete guide to monkeys, apes and other primates. London: Viking Press.

Primates are one of the most interesting mammals on earth, not only because of their complex social structures, but because they hold so many similar characteristics to humans. Primates are often cited as our closest living relatives and on two separate occasions I observed four separate species of primates at the San Diego Zoo that can justify their use of their physical characteristics and behaviors that may be similar as well as different to the other primates and ours.


Humans and non-human primates have many behaviors and characteristics in common. Apes and chimpanzees have been studies and closely watched for many years. Scientist and researchers and found many similarities between the apes and chimpanzees with humans. All three are hard working and work with tools. They also make these tools. Another similarity is the fact that they are very social with others of their breed. This is also true about other primates other than apes and chimpanzees, like lemurs, lorises, pottos, and tarsiers. Apes and chimpanzees are able to learn sign language and elementary math skills. All primates have nails instead of claws on their fingers and toes. Both non-human primates and humans all have opposable thumbs. They use these thumbs to be able to pick up things better and they are thumbs that are able to move and touch other parts of the same hand. Non-human primates, including humans, learn by watching their mothers and other family members. For example, chimpanzees learn to make stick tools to stick into holes to get termites to eat. They do this because the mothers never teach them

Primates have some features that support them for the arboreal life. First, primates have developed grasping extremities with the divergent hallux and nails instead of claws. These features help them grasping branches better. Second, primates have enhanced vision with the optic convergence, which helps them look straightforward. They also have postorbital bar to protect the eyes. Third, primates reduced the olfaction that is not useful for arboreal life. Fourth, comparing to the other mammals, primates have large brain consider to the body size. The large brain helps them to process the complicating reactions, and thinking. Haplorrhines primates have some unique derived traits: the loss of tapetum lucidum, which enhances the vision in the darkness; and haplorhini, which is dry external nose. The anthropoid primates have developed some derived traits. They have postorbital bar with closure, and this makes a complete bony ring surrounds the eyes. They also have fused mandibular symphysis. The Platyrrhines have the dental formula 2.1.3.3/2.1.3.3. The Catarrhines have dental formula 2.1.2.3/2.1.2.3. The Cercopithecoids have the bilophodont molars to enhance the chewing ability. The hominoids are the most developed primates, which have some derived unique traits. They have larger brain, loss of tail, longer arms than legs, broad thorax with more muscles, and highly mobile shoulder.

Primates first evolved from the trees of tropical forests, later to the ground. Through the times of promisians to human, many characteristics has been represented due to the adaptations to new environments and resulted in evolutionary changes. The Earth has encountered several geological and climatic changes over time. For the primates existed at that time had to adjust itself especially in body configurations and locomotion in order to better survive. It is important to be aware of this information since we are the part of occurring changes as well. Throughout the evolution owing to

What is one of the oldest (evolutionarily) structures in the human brain? What does this structure do?

Primate Taxonomy Reduction of the olfactory apparatus The reduction in the size of the snout and the increased reliance on vision has also led to a relative reduction in the olfactory apparatus compared to many other mammals. This is again apparent from figure 6 and is associated with the reduction in size of the snout. Loss of certain elements of the primitive mammalian dentition. Preservation of a simple

According to the data collected, the Intermembral index for each of the six primates observed from highest to lowest is: Gibbon (127), Howler monkey (102), Baboon (94), Macaque (89), Marmoset (74), Human (69). From this grouping, the Gibbon is the primate whose IM at 127 is the highest percentage, and this indicates that their upper limbs are significantly longer than their lower limbs. In contrast, the Human, with an IM of only 69 serves as the lowest percentage of the examples given, and this instead serves to demonstrate that their upper limbs are shorter than their lower limbs. This difference in limb length between the Gibbon and the Human is significant because it helps to show how species are adapted to best fit the environments

The Strepsirrhini group are “more primitive than other primates such as monkeys and apes.” (3). Lemurs have olfactory communication, have stink and spur fights. Lorises are known for their “nocturnal behavior and are extremely slow in locomotion”. (3). Galago’s also called bush babies because their calls sound similar to an infant, they can jump about 8 feet from a sitting position and have very strong eyesight.

Each and every primate’s exhibit changes for climbing trees and shrubs and has evolved into two major groups: Prosimians and also Anthropoids.

Primates come from the order of mammals and are defined based on the morphology of the group of animals. Morphology is the branch of biology that concerns the study of the structures and forms of various organisms based on their structural features. The study involves both the internal and external primary functions of the structures of an organism including the parts. According to the identification of primate’s family they are divided based on the generalized and the specialized features of the organisms (Russell 2015). The generalized features of the organisms are the common traits that identify the organisms to the specific family of primates. These are the characteristics that the entire organism that is considered to be primates possess

The captivity of primates in zoos can be viewed as maltreatment by animal welfare organizations since confining them in such establishments is going against their rights to be liberated and it may cause some unwanted stress, yet zoos provide various enrichment programs, medicinal assistance, scheduled meals that are appropriate for the primate’s diet, and conservation of the said animal. Primate captivity in zoos can be regarded as both moral and unethical for it imprisons primates, however, as their natural habitat dwindles, zoos also preserve primate population through captive breeding. Furthermore, zoos simultaneously deform the lives of the primates, garner sympathetic reactions from humans for these creatures, and inform

Within this essay, we will study more in depth the behavioral as well as physical traits of two primates at a zoo from their interaction with their peers to their place in the group. This observation would enable us to further understand the possible existing correlation between humans and primates. First, I studied a female chimpanzee with her baby, and then, a dominant male gorilla, in San Francisco Zoo at about noon, on May 23, 2015, for an hour each. Even though they share some similarities such as having a large brain, living for a long time, and being bored in their enclosure, they are still different; when gorillas are the largest, chimpanzees are the smartest. In fact, chimps use tools to catch food, they would not be able to reach

New research conducted by Canadian experts at the University of Lethbridge suggests that new behavioral trends are manifesting among primates, which has interesting implications about how the behavior of all animals undergoes its own sort of evolution, including that of human beings. The study shows apparent sex acts on the parts of female, Japanese macaques on sika deer. These acts of interspecies relations were observed in Minoh, Osaka—a city in central Japan. As uncommony documented as interspecies relations can be, they are a known phenomenon, and it’s been observed as early as the Holocene epoch or even the Pliocene epoch by way of the extinct mammoth.

The difference is even reflected in the names of the suborders Strepsirrhini, meaning twisted-nose, and Haplorhini, meaning simple-nose. These suborders represent the major phyletic groups in the primate order and include the lorises, lemurs, and galagos within the strepsirrhines and tarsiers and anthropoids (monkeys, apes, and humans) within the haplorhines (Fleagle 2013). There are two nodes where we see a major divergence in nasal morphology, one in the early Eocene with the strepsirrhine/haplorine split, and around 35 mya with the platyrrhine/catarrhine branching. Once again the nomenclature reflects their nasal form with platyrrhine (consisting of new world monkeys, marmosets, and tamarins) meaning flat-nose, and catarrhine (consisting of old world monkeys, gibbon, great apes, and humans) referring to their downward facing noses. Descriptions of nasal morphology often focus on comparisons between these groupings of primates as it aids in a more complete understanding of when certain traits and phenotypes appear in the evolutionary record of primates. These taxonomic branchings are based on shared derived characteristics including the reduction of structural nasal complexity within anthropoids and tarsiers, and differences within the main and accessory olfactory bulbs between platyrhines and