Six Primate Analysis

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.

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.

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

For this assignment, I have decided to design an enclosure about the primate, Mandrill. I will, in words, describe an enclosure that will prevent these nonhuman primates from not being suited to their natural habitat needs. Throughout this assignment, I will design my very own version of a perfect enclosure that secures these primates by critically thinking of any psychological or physical problems that can occur. What also will need to partake is considering the perspective of the nonhuman primates, the zookeepers, and the visitors as well. Designing an enclosure has to be precise and detailed. I will do the best I can to be as detailed as I can be when designing this enclosure.

Non human primates’ social organization can provide useful information how human social evolution occurs. We will go over main points of how similar and different non human primates such as chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas’ society are compared to ours, humans.

1. Introduction: Extent Primates provide great insight as analogies into facilitating an understanding of how tool use, culture and cognition developed in the early hominid lineage. Archaeologists interpret primate behaviors and social structures as a means of investigating the evolution of hominin technology. This process will be briefly outlined as well as a number of the benefits and disadvantages presented when using extant primates as analogies in this way.

The studies of primate evolution have been developing throughout the years and now scientists are able to compare and contrast between several types of primate groups. One notable primitive characteristic that non-human primates and human primates have retained is the development and evolution of their dentition. Due to primates having long growth periods, scientists are able to research how primates have different dental characteristics and specializations in modern time (Larsen, 2008). By analyzing teeth, scientists are able to determine several factors, such as similar dental formation, growth, development, and diet preferences (Larsen, 2008).

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

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

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 orangutans differ in hand size, Herald had much larger hands than my own and Taylor’s hand size was around the same size as mine. Their hands display the thickness of the fingers and knuckles, which is more likely explained by their fist walking attributes.

Orangutan was the primate I decided to select for this primate observation. The monkey was enclosed in a large cage with two other monkeys (same species). It seem to be comfortable and unbothered of its surroundings. The monkey was just sitting observing everything around them, for example us the visitors. These primates are known to be unique thinkers. They are very quiet than other primates, patient, and problem solvers. The staff from the Los Angeles Zoo, provides a variety of enrichment through diet, I noticed a staff giving the monkeys vegetables: carrots, lettuce, and other that I didn’t quite notice. Being able to observe the lives of the Orangutans enclosed in the zoo, are very different

There are multiple things that I think needs to be done to help. For instance the government should identify and increase the protected areas in the

The non-reproductive lifespan following menopause in human females may equal up to 50% of a woman’s lifespan. This elongated post-reproductive period challenges evolutionary theory, placing a significant limitation on a woman’s lifetime reproductive capacity. As studying reproductive biology in humans can be difficult, non-human primate models are a useful tool to investigate patterns of human behaviour and reproduction. Previous studies on post-reproductive lifespans in primates have largely been on captive or provisioned populations and have relied on reproductive and behavioural observations to determine the presence and length of post-reproductive lifespans. No study has yet combined all aspects of behaviour, social networks and hormones in relation to ageing in non-human primates. This sort of holistic study, however, is necessary to completely understand how ageing is impacting female monkeys. Using long term data from the Yakushima study site in conjunction with hormonal data collected over a 12-month period this study will give insight into reproductive ageing in Japanese Macaques as a physiological and social phenomenon. The primary focus of this research project will be to analyse the intersection between social networks, behaviour and hormones of ageing primates.

Micheletta, Whitehouse, Parr, and Waller (2015) tested three crested macaques (Macaca nigra) using matching-to-sample tasks. The researchers’ goal was to determine whether these crested macaques were capable of discriminating between facial expressions and whether visual stimuli affected performance. There were two separate experiments in which the crested macaques were to match a photograph of a specific facial expression to an exemplar while other examples of different expressions and neutral faces were shown. Then they were to match a video of an expression to a photograph of the exemplar while other examples were shown (Micheletta et al., 2015). These primates performed above chance, and were able to identify expressions by category