Primates

A. Primate: group of mammals that include lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans

1. arboreal:

live in trees

2. flexible shoulder & hip joints

p. 430

3. Opposable thumbs

4. Vision

5. Brain volume

6. Arm movement

7. Flexible joints

8. Feet

B. Primate origin

1. Prosimianlike primates

a. small, present-day

b. lemurs, aye-ayes, tarsier

c. tropical forests

d. Purgatorius – earliest primate fossil,

resembling a squirrel that lived 66 million

years ago

2. Humanlike primates

a. anthropoids

b. monkeys & hominoids

1) apes & humans

c. complex brains, larger, different skeletal features, more upright posture

d. New World monkeys

1) prehensile tail used as 5th limb

e. Old World monkeys

1) larger, no prehensile tail, live on ground or trees

f. Hominoids: lack tails

1) apes: long, muscled forelimbs for

climbing, live in social groups

2) humans: larger brain, walk upright

a) 37-40 millions years

II. Human Ancestry

A. 5-8 million years ago in Africa

1.Hominids / African apes

a.Few fossils; DNA evidence

b. bipedal

B. Scientists of interest

1. Raymond Dart

a. 1924 discovered a young hominid – Australopithecus meaning “southern ape of

Africa”

b. 1-2 million years old

c. foramen magnum: opening in the skull through which the spinal cord passes as it leaves the brain

d. australopithecine: early hominids that lived in

Africa & apelike & humanlike characteristics

2. Donald Johanson

a. 1974 found oldest known & nearly complete australopithecine

1) “Lucy”

2) 3-5 million years ago (p. 440

C. Modern humans

1. 1964 Louis & Mary Leakey found humanlike skull

a. classified in genus homo

b. Homo habilis

“handy man”

2. Homo erectus

“upright man”

a. larger brain & a more humanlike face

3. archaic Homo sapiens

a. Neanderthals

1) 35,000 – 100,000

2) lived in caves, larger brains, religious views, spoken language

b. Cro-Magnons: possible decendents of modern humans

1) 35,000- 40,000

Rd. p. 448 – The Land Bridge to the New World