Primate Phylogeny

During the Eocene epoch, 47,000,000 years ago, one of our ancestors lived in what is now Germany. She was still young, her baby teeth still intact and probably less than a year old. This little girl came to a lake’s edge for a drink of water; cupping the water with her hand she slowly drank the water while holding onto a branch with her other hand. Our ancestor died there when she was overcome by an underground gas bubble that erupted, the fumes leaving her unconscious; she fell into the water and drowned. Her body slowly drifted to the bottom of the lake with a myriad of other creatures. The lake where she was buried eventually filled with mud and algae that turned into oily shale

This section gave detailed explanation of how humans have changed from primates and how we are able to survive. DNA is what affects what our bodies can handle compared to what our primates could handle. Mankind is twice split off from apes and the mutation of the human apoE gene is what helps us be able to eat meat. A second mutation appeared 220000 years ago which helped humans be able to break down fats and cholesterol. DNA and the mutation of our genes is what helped us survive. This section also talks about extinction, and how Jean Leopold Nicolas Frederic Cuvier,one of the greatest naturalists believed in it, despite many people not believing in the impermanence of a species. William Buckland, a biblical geologist who

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

Mammals are a subcategory of vertebrates, and mammals are more closely related to each other than to other types of vertebrates. They are so closely related, in fact, that the pictures at Station 9, of embryos of different mammals, are nearly indistinguishable. They all seem to have developing vertebrae, heads, and limbs, that are identical. Some of these will be lost as the embryo develops. The human embryo will lose its tail, while the dolphin embryo will lose a large part of its limbs. Primates are a category of mammals, and apes are a type of primates. All apes come from a common ancestor, and that includes humans. Even humans speciated multiple times before the modern human, or homo sapiens, evolved, as evidenced by the skulls at Station 5. They were all skulls of different species of prehistoric human. The skull most similar to the modern skull belonged to the most recent species of human. There were times when two types of humans lived together. The species that was best adapted to fit the environment at the time survived, while the

Activity 1: Early Primate Evolution Watch the short video “First Primates” on the NOVA website: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/first-primates.html (Links to an external site.) Links to an external site. Also available on Youtube: NOVA scienceNOW : 41 - First Primates (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. NOVA scienceNOW : 41 - First Primates Think about the concepts presented in the video in relation to your assigned reading concerning the earliest primates and material presented in Chapter 8 of your textbook.

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.

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.

The major primate groups are divided into two groups. The first main group are the Strepsirrhini’s, also called prosimians and include, Lemurs, Lorises and Galago’s. The second main group of primates are called haplorrhines and include, monkeys, apes, and humans

The evolutionary changes in the Euprimate skulls allowed them to rely more on vision than on small because, most mammals including pottos and certain other primates, are colorblind, they can't distinguish the color red. Therefore, the color may have evolved in primates because it helped them to pick out ripe red or orange against the green forest background. However, color vision may also help some leaf eating monkey species to pick out the most nutritions green leaves. 2. A lower primate (such as lemur) grasps objects as compared to a higher primates (such as a monkey), the grasping hands of primates are an adaptation to life in the trees.

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.

Primate life on earth began about 50-55 million years ago during the Eocene Epoch, although it is unknown how many different living species of primates there on earth. One likely fact is that the major groups of primates have been discovered, two of who are the Pongo Orangutan and the Pan Paniscus Bonobo. The word Orangutan translated from Malay means “Person of the forest” this is so because there are only two places you can find an Orangutan’s: Malaysia and Indonesia. The orangutan is an official state animal of Sabah in Malaysia. There are two different types of Orangutan’s; the Bornean Orangutan, which found on the island of Borneo and the Sumatran Orangutan, which is found on the Sumatra Island. Orangutans are known as the world’s largest tree climbing mammals, unlike other primates they spend the majority of their lives on trees. Orangutan habitat consists of primary tropical rain forest and old secondary forest at low elevations. Orangutans prefer high-density climate due to their diet, which consists 65% of fruit. Bonobos have been considered humankind’s closest relative and share 98% of our DNA. Bonobos can only be found in one country: the Democratic Republic of the Congo also known as DRC. Bonobos inhabit the second largest rainforest on earth, the Congo Basin. Bonobos prefer swampy rainforests and similar to the Orangutans, Bonobos are arboreal which are adapted to living on

One of the main reasons why we are so interested in the other primates is that by looking at them we can obtain some ideas of what our ancestor must have been like a few millions years ago. Even though, we are not descended from any modern-type monkey or ape, our lineage does appear to have gone through stages in which we were a medium-sized, reasonably intelligent creature with good binocular vision, hands that were good at manipulation and the ability to climb trees. An evolutionary trend in primates involves the development of offspring both before and after birth and their integration into complex social systems. Another trend in primate evolution has been toward a more elaborate brain. In addition to brain size and gestation periods,

There is a circumstance that has beset the understanding of evolution over time that there is no general theory involving primate evolution. Most of the theories are just mere speculation. Over the years, primates like gorillas, chimpanzees, and baboons all happened to have their turn in evolution. It was previously presumed that the taxon of interest happened to have the exact similar physiology and ecology as the analog taxon (Rafferty, 2010).The majority of the first primate species theories have been utilized because they solely share one fundamental characteristic with the hominines with the chimpanzees as the phylogenetic cousins. This paper addresses the different ecological conditions that handled the evolution of primates. It

What makes a primate a primate? A primate is defined by its many incredible features. A primate is a mammal that has certain characteristics such as: flexible fingers and toes, opposable thumbs, flatter face than other mammals, eyes that face forward and spaced close together, large and complex cerebrum, and social animals. What makes a primate a primate is its characteristics. Some of the physical features primates are identified by is their teeth, snouts, eyes, ears, arms, legs, fingers, and toes. Human evolution is a big part of humans being primates, and having similar features and characteristics make humans to be considered to be a primate, but both humans and non-humans have differences.

The theories of human evolution may always cause a heated dispute. Each theory presents its own evidence proving