Chapter 5 Overview of Living Primates

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Chapter 5Overview of Living Primates

• Key Terms

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• Prosimians Members of a suborder of Primates,
  the Prosimii. Traditionally, the suborder
  includes lemurs, lorises, and tarsiers.
• Anthropoids Members of a suborder of Primates,
  the Anthropoidea. Traditionally, the suborder
  includes monkeys, apes, and humans.

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• Mammalia The technical term for the formal
  grouping (class) of mammals.
• Primitive Referring to a trait or combination of
  traits present in an ancestral form.

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• Specialized Evolved for a particular function
  usually refers to a specific trait (e.g.,
  incisor teeth), but may also refer to the entire
  way of life of an organism.
• Primatologists Scientists who study the
  evolution, anatomy, and behavior of nonhuman
  primates. Those who study behavior in noncaptive
  animals are usually trained as physical
  anthropologists.

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• Morphology The form (shape, size) of anatomical
  structures can also refer to the entire
  organism.
• Prehensility The ability to grasp objects, as by
  the hands and/or feet of primates.

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• OmnivorousHaving a diet consisting of many food
  types (i.e., plant materials, meat, and insects).
• Diurnal Active during the day.

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• Nocturnal Active during the night.
• Stereoscopic vision The condition whereby visual
  images are, to varying degrees, superimposed on
  one another. This provides for depth perception,
  or the perception of the external environment in
  three dimensions. Partly a function of structures
  in the brain.

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• Binocular vision Vision characterized by
  overlapping visual fields provided by
  forward-facing eyes essential to depth
  perception.
• Arboreal Tree-living adapted to life in the
  trees.

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• Adaptive niche The entire way of life of an
  organism where it lives, what it eats, how it
  gets food, how it avoids predators, etc.
• Arboreal hypothesis The traditional view that
  primate characteristics can be explained as a
  consequence of primate diversification into
  arboreal habitats.

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• MidlineAn anatomical term referring to a
  hypothetical line that divides the body into
  right and left halves.
• Cusps The elevated portions (bumps) on the
  chewing surfaces of premolar and molar teeth.

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• Quadrupedal Using all four limbs to support the
  body during locomotion the basic mammalian (and
  primate) form of locomotion.
• MacaquesGroup of Old World monkeys comprising
  several species, including rhesus monkeys.

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• Brachiation A form of locomotion in which the
  body is suspended beneath the hands and support
  is alternated from one forelimb to the other arm
  swinging.
• Rhinarium The moist, hairless pad at the end of
  the nose seen in most mammalian species. The
  rhinarium enhances an animals ability to smell.

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• Sexual dimorphism Differences in physical
  characteristics between males and females of the
  same species. For example, humans are slightly
  sexually dimorphic for body size, with males
  being taller, on average, than females of the
  same population.
• Estrus Period of sexual receptivity in female
  mammals (except humans), correlated with
  ovulation. When used as an adjective, the word is
  spelled estrous.

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• Hominoidea The formal designation for the
  superfamily of anthropoids that includes apes and
  humans.
• Frugivorous Having a diet composed primarily of
  fruit.