32-3 Primates and Human Origins By Alan Newcomb Megan Stone Bradley Reddin Regan Gauntt

Adaptations Binocular Vision Well developed cerebrum Have flat face that enable the primate to merge images providing depth perception and a 3-d veiw of the world Well developed cerebrum Helps them display complex behaviors Flexible fingers and toes Usually have five fingers that curl around objects Arms that rotate in broad circles Enables many primates to run along tree limbs and swing like Tarzan with ease The thumb The presence of the thumb helps them hold objects firmly in their hands or in their feet

Evolutionary History Primates split into several groups in the early evolutionary history Prosimians : small, nocturnal primates with large eyes adapted for seeing in the dark, many have dog like snouts Anthropoids: include monkeys, apes, and humans They are split into two branches

Anthropoids New world monkeys like squirrels and spider monkeys they live almost entirely in trees Long flexible arms to swing branch to branch once again like Tarzan They have a long prehensile tail that can coil tightly around a branch to serve as a fifth hand Old World Monkeys such as langurs and macaques Spend time in trees but lack the prehensile tail Great apes also called hominoids include orangutans and gorillas share 98% DNA with humans

Hominoid Evolution Hominoid family includes modern humans that display several distinct evolutionary trends. Bipedal means to have two feet Hominid hand evolved an opposable thumb

Early Hominids Almost a third of all Hominids have been discovered in the last 20 years Most palientolisgest agree that the Hominid fossil record includes at least these genera; Ardipithecus, Paranthropus, Austrlopithecus, Kenyanthropus, and Homo

Australopithecus This group lived from about 4 million to about a million years ago. They were bipedal apes that ate fruit, stayed in trees, and are human ancestors

Paranthropus They had huge grinding back teeth with diets including course and fibrous plant foods. They grew to the size of well feed football linebackers

Early Hominid Evolution Like the evolution other mammalian groups, a series of complex adaptive radiations produced a large number of species whose relationships are difficult to determine The hominid fossil record dated back nearly 7 million years ago

The Genus homo Homo Habilis means “handy man” Homo Habilis was the first of several species in our genus to arise in Africa.

Out of Africa, but when? And who? Researchers agree that our genus originated in Africa. But they do not know when the hominids first left Africa or originated.

Modern homo sapiens There are two groups of hominids. One is homo neanderthalensis and homo sapiens. They thinl homo neanderthalensis died out 30,000 years ago. 50,000 years ago, homo sapiens act like we do today

Questions What are the two types of homos? What are two types of primates? What are the two differences in the types of primates? What are the two types of adaptations of primates?