Primates

1
Primates

• Physical and Behavioral Similarities

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Primates

• Mammals
• Include humans, apes, chimpanzees, monkeys,
  ancestral forms of hominids etc.
• Similarities between primates including humans
• Anatomical or Physical Features
• Behavioural Features

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Primates Anatomical Similarities

• Skeletal
• Grasping ability in most primates hands and feet
• Prehensile hands
• Usually five digits
• Usually opposable thumbs
• Two bones in lower part of limbs and one bone in
  upper
• Clavicle collarbone

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Black Spider Monkey brachiating

• South America in parts of the Amazon River Basin
• Arboreal
• Rainforest
• Prehensile tail
• http//pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/black
  _spider_monkey

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Homo sapiensGrasping and upper body rotation
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Primates Anatomical Similarities

• Dentition
• Omnivorous
• Molars, premolars (grinding), incisors, canines
  (cutting)
• Some prosimians have dental comb for grooming
  and gum

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Human Dentition
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Dentition Prosimians

• Ring-tailed Lemur
• Madagascar
• Dental comb on lower jaw
• Omnivorous
• http//pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/ring-
  tailed_lemur

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Primates Anatomical Similarities

• Vision
• Stereoscopic visiontrees and brachiation
• Vision rather than smell
• Colour vision
• Night vision

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Vision Prosimians

• Tarsiers
• South East Asia (Indonesia, Philippines,
  Malaysia, Brunei)
• Nocturnal
• Eat insects
• Turn head 180 degrees
• http//pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/black
  _spider_monkey

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Primates Anatomical Similarities

• Brain
• Relatively large size
• Learning important
• Animals with large brains mature slowly and live
  longer

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Brain Gorilla

• East Central and West Equatorial Africa
• Varied habitat, few in number due to human
  predation and habitat destruction
• Varied diet between groupsmostly vegetables,
  fruit and insects
• http//pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/goril
  la

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Primates Anatomical Similarities

• Reproduction
• Males have a pendulous penis
• Females have two nipples and a uterus adapted to
  1 fetus rather than a litter
• Quality over quantity
• Infants can usually cling to mothers although
  this is not the case with humans, apes and some
  monkeys
• Great apes and humans have immature infants

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Primates Behavioural similarites

• Social life
• Prolonged dependency creates bonds between
  infants, children and adults especially
  although not only mothers
• What kinds of social relationships do young
  baboons develop with adults?
• What do young baboons learn from these
  relationships?

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Primates Behavioural similarities

• Social
• Play
• Social relationships
• Appropriate behaviour
• Develop status
• Physical skills
• Learning
• Imitation versus active learning
• Chimpanzees which learn by watching and doing

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Primates Behaviroural similarities

• Communication
• Ways of communicating include sound, odour, body
  movement, facial expressions
• Vocal communication in non-human primates is
  present but limited
• What is symbolic communication?
• Communication is meaningful even when referent is
  not present
• Meaning is arbitrarythe animal or person who
  receives the message could not guess its meaning
  just from the sound (dog versus Choo-choo)

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Primates Behaviroural similarities

• Do non-human primates use symbolic communication?
• Vervet monkeys have three alarm calls meaning
  eagle, python and leopard
• Infants must learn the meaning of each call
• Apes in the wild do not use complex forms of
  language

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Primates Behaviroural similarities

• Language
• Human languages are quantitatively more complex
  than those of other primates
• Human languages are open rather than
  closedwe use grammatical rules to create new
  meanings all the time
• Humans can be ambiguous in their use of language
  and use language in ways which are subtlewe have
  many forms of discourse

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Primates Behaviroural similarities

• Language
• Many individual great apes including gorillas,
  chimpanzees and bonobos have been taught to speak
  using ASL and keyboards
• Some of these animals have been inventive in
  their use of languageWashoe the gorillas use of
  dirty
• But these animals still use language in a basic
  way
• Have not developed complex grammars
• Have not developed varied forms of discourse

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Primates

• Typology

Living primates
Anthropoids
Prosimians
New World Monkeys
Old World Primates
Lemurs
Tarsiers
Lorises
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Primates

• Typology

Old World Primates
Old World Monkeys
Apes and humans (Hominoids)
Humans and ancestors Hominins
Lesser apes (Hylobates)
Great apes (Pongids)
Humans
Hominids
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Homonoids

• Characterized by
• Brains Large especially cerebral cortex
• Bodies Long arms, short broad trunks, no tails
• Complex and long hands and complex wrists for
  movement in trees
• Not primarily quadrupedal as are monkeys and
  prosimians
• Dental
• Y-5 patterns on molars rather than bilophant
  pattern of other anthropoids
• Large canines and diastema
• Share blood proteins with other Homonoids

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The Hylobates or Lesser Apes

• Gibbons and siamangs
• SE Asian jungles
• Brachiators
• Live in small family groups
• Little sexual dimorphism
• Hoolok Gibbon (http//pin.primate.wisc.edu/factshe
  ets/entry/hoolock_gibbon)
• Siamang (http//pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/en
  try/siamang)

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The PongidsOrangutans

• SE Asia in Borneo and Sumatra
• Sexual dimorphism
• Arboreal fruit eaters
• Solitary except mothers and youngnot as social
  as other pongids
• http//pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/orang
  utan

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The Pongids Gorillas

• Various places in central Africa
• Becoming increasingly rare due to poaching and
  deforestation
• Males 205 kg and females 113 kg
• Knuckle-walking on ground
• Live in groups with a dominant male
  silverbackyoung males form own groups
• http//pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/goril
  la

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The Pongids Chimpanzees

• African forests from Tanzania to Sierra Leone
• Bonobo (Pygmy Chimpanzee)
• (http//pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/bono
  bo
• Common Chimpanzee
• http//pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/chimp
  anzee

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Bonobo

• Little sexual dimorphism
• Gregarious with groups centered around the female
• Good climbers but spend much time on ground
• Sexual activity used as a form of bonding and
  tension reduction for the group
• Gentle ape

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Common Chimpanzee

• Fruit-eaters but do hunt in dry season
• Tree nests
• Climbers but move best on ground and stand on
  hind feet to see over grasses
• Lightly sexual dimorphic
• Large groups are multi-male and female and may be
  unstable

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Chimp baby on Chimp parent
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Chimp Behaviour

• See the following site for information about
  chimpanzee behaviour
• http//www.discoverchimpanzees.org/behaviors/top.p
  hp

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Whats distinctive about humans?

• Bipedalism
• Cerebral cortex
• Speech centre
• Human brain 1300 cc Gorilla brain 525 cc
• Teeth reflect omnivorous diet
• Distinctive patterns of sexuality of human
  females
• Male-female bonding and group living

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Whats distinctive about humans?

• Tool-making
• Language
• Brain development
• The position of the larynx and the upper
  respiratory tract
• Terrestrial rather than arboreal
• Gender specialized rolesfood production