STUDY OUTLINE FOR TEST #2
(this is not an all inclusive guide but is intended to help you prepare)
Primate Evolution, Systematics, Anatomy and Behavior
I.
EVOLUTIONARY RELATIONSHIPS. How do we determine evolutionary
relationships? What is a homology? What are primitive and derived traits? Give some
examples from taxa we have looked at in class. How do we use these traits to determine valid
taxa at a given level. A comparison of the Prosimian/Anthropoid vs. Haplorhine/Strepsirhine
alternative suborder classifications would be an excellent example of this.
II.
SYSTEMATICS. Know your taxonomy handout backwards and forwards. What lower
level taxa are included in each taxon? Be sure to be able to list some unique features
characterizing each taxon. Be sure to know how to write your genus and species names correctly.
Your species is Homo sapiens (ending with s, with the first letter of the genus name capitalized,
the trivial name all lower case letters, both names underlined separately.)
III.
PRIMATE BEHAVIOR. How is social behavior related to Darwinian fitness? What is
the concept of inclusive fitness? Why are female bonded social groups so common among
primates? Why are nonhuman primates an interesting group to study from a sociobiological
(evolutionary psychology) perspective? How might this perspective aid us in understanding
human behavior?
1. Why do male and female primates have such different "reproductive strategies"? How does
this relate to sexual dimorphism?
2. Compare the behavior of baboons and chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas, in some detail, in
terms of group composition, social relations, aggression and problem solving abilities. What is
the adaptive significance of a given behavior, in terms of “reproductive strategies”, inclusive
fitness and/or patch size and distribution?
3. What is the function of dominance in chimps and baboons? Give an example of how tool use
improves exploitation of a resource.
4. What are day ranges, home ranges and core areas? How does patch size relate to social
structure and reproductive strategies?
5. Are humans radically different in behavior and social structure from other primates? What
kinds of abilities often thought to be unique to humans have been observed in other primates?
Which primates? What is the most important social relationship found in primates?
6. What is the significance of the phrase "social tool use" as viewed by some primatologists?
7. What is the significance of dominance, estrus/estruous, infanticide, kinship, coalitions,
communication etc. in primate societies.
8. What are two major types of ethological data collection in primatology (focal,scan, ad lib)?
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IV. EARLY PRIMATES AND THEIR RELATIVES: When and where do they occur?
LATE CRETACEOUS, PALEOCENE, EOCENE, OLIGOCENE, MIOCENE (LAB QUIZ ONLY)
1. PALEOCENE (65-56mya) - Adaptive radiation of primitive eutherians (closely related to
primates?) belonging to the now extinct suborder or order Plesiadapiformes ("Primate-like
Mammals"). Where did they live? What modern primate features were were not present in these
forms?
2. EOCENE (56-38mya) - Adaptive radiation of the early primate suborders haplorhini and
strepsirhini ("TRUE PRIMATES"), see notes, labs and primate handout for derived traits)
a. strepsirhini. fossils belong to the family Adapidae. "broadly similar to lemurs and lorises".
b. haplorhini. fossils belong to the family Omomyidae. "broadly similar to modern tarsiers"
Where did these critters live? What modern primate characteristics did they have that were not
present in the plesiadapiformes? What primitive eutherian traits do they retain? What modern
groups did these families give rise to? What are the various hypotheses used to explain the
origin of primates and their unique features?
3. OLIGOCENE (38-25mya), EARLY ANTHROPOIDS - The earliest platyrrhines are now
present in South America. An Anthropoid/catarrhine/platyrrhine? radiation is going on in Africa
at this time as evidenced by the Fayum material. What are Parapithecids and Propliopithecids
(sometimes called pliopithecids) and what infraorders do they appear to be related to? Why?
The most important genus for our purposes is Aegyptopithecus. What was its dental formula?
Why do we care what its dental formula was? What features does it have that were not present in
Eocene primates? Why is the presence of an upper canine/P3 honing complex in this primate so
important? What is the possible significance of sexual dimorphism in canine size? What
characters identify a primate as an anthropoid?
4. MIOCENE HOMINOIDS
EARLY MIOCENE 22 TO 16mya . RADIATION IN EAST AFRICA
How do we know that hominoids and cercopithecoids have split into different lineages by this
time? Proconsul: In what ways were their crania more primitive than modern hominoids?
What were their teeth like? What evidence is there for their locomotor adaptations?
5. LATER MIOCENE 16 TO 5mya HOMINOID RADIATION IN AFRICA, EUROPE AND
ASIA - Genera to remember: Sivapithecus, and AFRICA- Kenyapithecus. Graecopithecus
Where do these critters live and what more modern features do they appear to have? In what
ways does Asian Sivapithecus resemble the orang? What are the possible explanations for
this? How does it differ from African, large bodied hominoids? What are the evolutionary
relationships of living Pongo, Pan, Gorilla and Homo, how might the Miocene fossils above
fit into these relationships and why?
V.
NATURAL SELECTION.
Define Natural Selection, briefly describe how it works and describe its importance to the
modern synthetic theory of evolution.