Our Origins Discovering Physical
Anthropology
Second Edition
W. W. Norton & Company
by Clark Spencer Larsen
Chapter 6
Biology in the Present: The Other
Living Primates
©2011 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Clark Spencer Larsen
Our Origins DISCOVERING PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Chapter 6
C. Milner-Rose
What is a Primate?
History of classification of the order
– Linnaeus first described the order
Primates for classification purposes.
What is a Primate?
History of classification of the order
– As identified by Le Gros Clark,
primates have the following traits:
• Primates are adapted to life in the
trees (arboreal adaptation).
• Primates eat a variety of foods (dietary
plasticity).
• Primates invest a lot in a few offspring
(parental investment).
What is a Primate?
Arboreal Adaptation
– Primates have a versatile skeletal
structure
• Clavicle acts as a strut to keep upper limbs to
sides of body.
• Ulna and radius rotate forearm.
• Phalanges allow hand and foot dexterity.
• Opposable thumb (or big toe) allows digit to
touch other fingers.
• Primates have a powerful precision grip.
• Primates have a distinctive spinal column with
five vertebral types.
Figure 6.3 Grips and Opposable Thumbs Our Origins, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Figure 6.4a Opposable Big Toes-Its Curved Hallux Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.4b Opposable Big Toes-The Chimpanzee Foot Looks
more Like a Human Hand Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.4c Opposable Big Toes-A Human Foot Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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What is a Primate?
Arboreal Adaptation
– Primates have an enhanced sense of
touch
• The ends of fingers and toes are
sensitive and allow for maximum
information from environment.
– Primates have an enhanced sense of
vision
• Eyes are rotated to the front of the
head with overlapping fields of vision.
• Most primates see in color.
Figure 6.8b Reduced Snout-With the Loss of the Rhinarium,
the Snout of Primates such as this Langur monkey is Reduced in Size,
Enabling the Eyes to Rotate to the Front Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.9 Most primates have a flatter snout but the Baboon monkey’s Snout is
enlarged to accomodate its huge canine teeth. Our Origins, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
What is a Primate?
Arboreal Adaptation
– Reduced reliance on senses of smell
and hearing
• Most higher primates have lost the
naked rhinarium (wet nose).
• Some prosimians retain the rhinarium.
• Smell is a secondary sense in most
primates.
Figure 6.8a Reduced Snout-Lemurs are among the Few
Primates that have Retained the Rhinarium Our Origins, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
What is a Primate?
Dietary Plasticity: Primates Eat a Highly
Varied Diet
– Primates have retained primitive
characteristics in their teeth
• Dental traits in four functionally
distinct tooth types
• Incisors, canines, premolars, and molars
• Generalized teeth are typical with few
specializations
What is a Primate?
Dietary Plasticity
– Primates Have a Reduced Number of
Teeth
• Dental formula records number of teeth
in one jaw quadrant.
• 2/1/2/3 is the formula for Old World
monkeys and apes.
• 2/1/3/3 is the formula for New World
monkeys.
What is a Primate?
Dietary Plasticity
– Primates have evolved different dental
functional emphases
• Premolars and molars used for grinding
• Molars have different numbers of cusps.
– Bilophodont (two lobes).
– Y-5 (cusps in the shape of a “Y”).
– In some species the canine teeth are
quite long.
What is a Primate?
Dietary Plasticity
– Primates have evolved different dental
specializations and functional
emphases
• Canine-premolar honing complex slices
food.
• Enamel thickness varies across the
order depending on the amount of fruit
in the diet.
What is a Primate?
Parental Investment
– Female primates give birth to fewer
offspring than other mammals, mostly
single birth.
– Primate parental investment in their
single offspring is high.
– The development period is longer.
– Parental investment is greatest in apes
whose brains are larger, take longer to
mature and who adapt through social
learning.
Figure 6.16 Growth Stages of Five Primates Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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What is a Primate?
Parental Investment
– Longer development period is
related to larger brain size in
primates compared to other
mammals.
– Humans have the largest brain for
body size of all species.
Figure 6.17 Primate Brain Morphology-Graph Shows,
Primates with the Greatest Body Mass also have the Greatest
Brain Mass and thus the Greatest Intelligence Our Origins, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
What are the Kinds of Primates?
Over two hundred species with great
physical and behavioral diversity
– Differences have occurred through
evolution.
– Living primates provide models for
understanding evolutionary past.
– Primates are primarily tropical and
some have adapted to cold regions.
What are the Kinds of Primates?
Ad Hominin? Genetic vs. Anatomical
Classification
– DNA analysis demonstrates that
humans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and
bonobos are more closely related than
each is to orangutans.
– Chimpanzees and humans are more
closely related than either is to
gorillas.
Figure 6.19 Chimpanzee-Human Relationship Our Origins, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
What are the Kinds of Primates?
Ad Hominin? Genetic vs. Anatomical
Classification
– DNA analyses (genetic classification)
provide a window to the relationships
between primates different from
anatomical classification.
• Provides insight into adaptations
• Provides insight into evolutionary
descent from common ancestors
What are the Kinds of Primates?
Prosimians: The Lesser & Earlier Types
– Among oldest living primates
– Developed sense of smell
– Combination of nails and claws with
less dexterity than other primates
– Geographic range: Madagascar and
Southeast Asia & Africa
– Tarsiers share some traits with
prosimians and anthropoids providing a
clue to evolutionary links.
Figure 6.21a Tarsier’s Eyes and Feet Our Origins, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Figure 6.21b Tarsier’s Eyes and Feet-The Talus and
Calcaneus Bones, Tarsiers are Superb Leapers Our Origins, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
What are the Kinds of Primates?
Anthropoids: The Higher Primates
– Old World monkeys (catarrhines)
• Nostrils separated by a septum that
points downward.
• Most diverse and most successful
nonhuman primates
• Tough sitting pads on the rear (ischial
callosities)
Figure 6.22 Platyrrhines vs. Catarrhines Our Origins, 2nd Edition
Copyright © 2011 W.W. Norton & Company
Figure 6.24h Old World Monkeys-Vervet Monkeys
Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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What are the Kinds of Primates?
Anthropoids: The Higher Primates
– Old World monkeys (catarrhines)
• Inhabit terrestrial and arboreal habitats
in Africa and Asia
• Two subfamilies: cercophithecoids and
colobines
• Baboons, macaques, mandrills, colobus
Figure 6.24g Old World Monkeys-Olive Baboons Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.24e Old World Monkeys-Mandrills Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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What are the Kinds of Primates?
Anthropoids: The Higher Primates
– New World monkeys (platyrrhines)
• Rounded nostrils separated by a septum
• Among ~70 species of monkeys there
are a few species with a prehensile, or
grasping, tail
• Inhabit arboreal habitats in Latin and
South America including the Costa Rican
and Amazon jungles, etc.
• There are neither apes nor prosimians
in the New World, ONLY MONKEYS!
What are the Kinds of Primates?
Anthropoids: The Higher Primates
– New World Monkeys (platyrrhines)
• One subfamily: ceboids
• Spider, squirrel, howler monkeys are
the only S. Am. primates with
prehensile (grasping) tails.
What are the Kinds of Primates? Anthropoids: The Higher Primates
– Hominoids are Apes including
• Great Apes: orangutan, chimpanzee,
bonobo, gorilla – these are large &
heavy bodied with larger brains
– Sagittal crest in gorilla, orangutan
– Knucklewalk on the ground & climb
rapidly using grasping hands & feet
• Lesser Apes: gibbons, siamang – these
are smaller, the size of larger monkeys
and have small monkey-sized brains
– Skilled brachiators, they rapidly swing
underneath branches and hang
suspended by their long arms
Figure 6.29 Quadrupedalism vs. Bipedalism Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.25b Great Apes and Lesser Apes-Bonobos Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.25c Great Apes and Lesser Apes-Orangutans
Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.25d Great Apes and Lesser Apes-Gorillas
Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.25e Great Apes and Lesser Apes-Gibbons
Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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This Map Indicates the Tropical Forests that Remain and the Ones
that have been lost to Deforestation, One of the Most Prominent
Threats to many Primate Species Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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A Double Threat for Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Deforestation is the Loss of a Forest’s Canopy Cover
through Logging and Burning, as in this Brazilian Rainforest Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Chapter 6: Clicker Questions
Which of the following is not true of primates?
a) Primates are adapted to live in diverse
climates.
b) Primates inhabit every continent.
c) Primates eat many different foods.
d) Primates spend time with their offspring.
Chapter 6: Clicker Questions
Primates’ enhanced ___________ led to a reduced
sense of ___________.
a) hearing / smell
b) vision / touch
c) hearing / vision
d) vision / smell
Chapter 6: Clicker Questions
Anthropoids differ from prosimians in all the
following ways except that they:
a) have larger brains than prosimians.
b) have more teeth than prosimians.
c) are more sexually dimorphic than prosimians.
d) see in color, and prosimians do not.
Chapter 6: Clicker Questions
Primates that are adapted for eating large
amounts of plants and leaves can be
distinguished by their:
a) sagittal crests.
b) incisor-like canines.
c) lack of a diastema.
d) tooth combs.
Chapter 6: Clicker Questions
It is possible to tell an ape skeleton from a human
skeleton based on:
a) the position of the foramen magnum.
b) the shape of the pelvis.
c) the length of the limbs.
d) All of the above
Figure 6.2a Primate Adaptation in Microcosm
The Taï Forest, Ivory Coast, West Africa Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.2b Primate Adaptation in Microcosm
The Taï Forest, Ivory Coast, West Africa Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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The Lemurs Shown here Live on St. Catherines Island, Georgia Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.24a Old World Monkeys
Black and White Colobus Monkeys Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.24b Old World Monkeys-Gray Langurs Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.24c Old World Monkeys-Proboscis Monkeys Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.24d Old World Monkeys-Douc Langurs.
Cercopithecines Include Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.24f Old World Monkeys-De Brazza’s monkeys Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.24g Old World Monkeys-Olive Baboons Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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Figure 6.25a Great Apes - Chimpanzees
Our Origins, 2nd Edition
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