1. Seeing Similarities: Our Place in the Primate Family Tree

2. Review: Principles of Evolution
Living things adapt to their environment to survive.
Sometimes, these adaptations are passed down to the next generation.
Over time, these changes accumulate and a whole new species can be formed.

3. What is a primate? Who are the primates?
Omnivorous mammals characterized by having hands, handlike feet, forward-facing eyes, varied locomotion, and complex flexible behaviors. Primates are typically tree-dwellers (exception=modern humans)
The species of the lemurs, bushbabies, tarsiers, marmosets, monkeys, apes (bonobos, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees,), and humans (who are also apes)

4. Why are we considered primates?
Let’s see the checklist...
Mammal
Hands
Handlike feet
Forward-facing eyes,
Varied locomotion
Complex, flexible behavior (especially social)
Omnivore

5. Where We Fit In: Evolutionary Trees
A evolutionary tree (or phylogenetic tree) is a diagram that shows the evolutionary relationships between different species.

6. The Primate Evolutionary Tree
We have a common ancestor, but we are NOT descended from monkeys!

7. Chimpanzees and Us: Side by Side
Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives.
We are all related!
Who is closely related to whom?
But where is the link? Let’s see for ourselves...

8. After the Split from Chimps: The Hominin Evolutionary Tree
Hominin = the group of primates consisting of modern humans, extinct human species and all our immediate ancestors. This does not include chimpanzees, bonobos, or any other nonhuman ape.
We are called MODERN humans”