ANT 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Quadrupedalism, Opentype, Thumb

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANT 100
• Professor: Dana Osborne

Document Summary

Mammals are hairy, toothy, warm blooded vertebrates. Primates are members of eutheria, means that they are (cid:858)pla(cid:272)e(cid:374)tal (cid:373)a(cid:373)(cid:373)als(cid:859) Placental mammals give birth to live young, which are nourished (cid:271)efore (cid:271)irth i(cid:374) the (cid:373)other(cid:859)s uterus by a specialized embryonic organ called the placenta. Ge(cid:374)erally, the s(cid:272)ie(cid:374)tifi(cid:272) (cid:272)o(cid:373)(cid:373)u(cid:374)ity uses the ter(cid:373) eutheria(cid:374)s rather tha(cid:374) (cid:858)pla(cid:272)e(cid:374)tal (cid:373)a(cid:373)(cid:373)als(cid:859) because since marsupials also have placentae, its misnomer. Other examples of eutherians include rats, dogs, and all african mammals. Cladistics, or the organization of animals based on homology is a way to reconstruct the degrees of similarity or difference that result from cladogenisis, or the formation of new species from an older one. Most primate species are small, arboreal animals (arboreal = tree dwelling) Most of these species are prosimians and monkeys. Ape and human species are few in number. Most primates are quadrupedal, meaning that they use all of their limbs to move around.