Primate Characteristics
- Arboreal lifestyle
- Grasping hands with flat nails rather than claws
- 5 digits with flexible thumbs & toes for grasping
- Shoulder and elbow joints that permits high degree of forelimb rotation; retain clavicle
- Fewer teeth; molars with simple rounded cusps
- Large, forward-facing eyes (binocular vision)
- Relatively reduced snout in most
- Large brain relative to body size
- Usually only 2 mammary glands (have relatively few offspring)
- Extensive parental care
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Living Primate Diversity
Strepsirhine "Prosimians"
- The term "prosimian" refers to the anatomically primitive primates that are not monkeys or apes. This group is paraphyletic
- Extant strepsirhines form a monophyletic group that is the sister group to all other primates (the Haplorhini)
- Relatively small size
- Tend to be longer-snouted
- Nostrils surrounded by moist skin
- Tend to be smaller brained than other primates
- Africa, Asia, Madagascar
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Bush Baby, Galago sp. (Family Galagonidae)
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Ring-tailed Lemur, Lemur catta (Family Lemuridae)
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Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur, Varecia variegata (Family Lemuridae)
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Haplorhini
- Includes tarsiers (considered "prosimians") and the Anthropoidea (monkeys and apes)
- Snout usually shorter
- Nose dry and hairy
- Incisors spatulate
- Brain proportionately larger
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Ceboidae
- New World monkeys, tamarins and marmosets
- Many have prehensile tail
- Nostrils point to side
- Central and South America
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Common Squirrel Monkey, Saimiri sciureus (Family Cebidae)
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Cotton-top Tamarin, Saguinus oedipus (Family Callitrichidae)
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Black-handed Spider Monkey, Ateles geoffroyi (Family Atelidae)
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Cercopithecoidae
- Old World monkeys
- Tail usually long but never prehensile
- Males (and some females) have large canines
- Nostrils point down
- Africa and southern Asia
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Guereza Colobus, Colobus guereza, Kenya (Family Cercopithecidae)
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Proboscis Monkey, Nasalis larvatus (Family Cercopithecidae)
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DeBrazza's Monkey, Cercopithecus neglectus (Family Cercopithecidae)
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Olive Baboon, Papio anubis, Kenya (Family Cercopithecidae)
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Japanese Macaques, Macaca fuscata (Family Cercopithecidae)
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Hominoidea
- Apes
- Medium to large size
- Lack tail
- Africa and southern Asia
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Crested Gibbon, Hylobates concolor (Family Hylobatidae)
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Siamang, Hylobates syndactylus (Family Hylobatidae)
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Orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus (Family Hominidae)
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(Lowland) Gorilla, Gorilla gorilla (Family Hominidae)
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Human, Homo sapiens (Family Hominidae)
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Orangutan skull, Pongo pygmaeus (Family Hominidae)
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Gorilla skull, male, Gorilla gorilla (Family Hominidae)
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Chimpanzee skull, Pan troglodytes (Family Hominidae)
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Fossil Hominids
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Australopithecus afarensis
3.9 to 2.9 million years ago
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Australopithecus africanus
3.0 to 2.3 million years ago
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Paranthropus boisei
2.3 to 1.4 million years ago
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Paranthropus aethiopicus
2.7 to 1.9 million years ago
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<<
Homo habilis
1.9 to 1.6 million years ago
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Homo erectus
1.8 to 0.3 million years ago (may have persisted until 18,000 years ago in Indonesia)
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<<
Homo neanderthalensis
300 to 30 thousand years ago
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Homo sapiens
160,000 years ago to present
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