ANT100Y1 Lecture : Primate and Early Human Evolution
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General patterns of morphology and phylogenetics for fossil primates. What a hominin is in terms of taxonomy. Morphological trends in hominin evolution: bipedalism, expansion in brain size, changes in dental/cranial features. Body size: tiny, shrew sized to the size of a small dog. Niche: likely solitary, nocturnal quadrupeds, well developed sense of smell. Used to b eclassified as primates because of primate like teeth and limbs that are adapted for arboreal lifestyle. More recent: plesiadapids and few others are primates. Two main eocene primate families: adapidae: body size 100g to 600g, dirunal and nocturnal forms, minaly arboreal quadrupeds, some may have been specialized leapers, smaller adapids ate most fruit and insects, larger forms are more fruit and leaves. Led to lemurs: omomyidae: body size of 45g to 2500g, some nocturnal others diurnal, thought to be specialized leapers, teeth adapted to eat soft fruit, few were leaf eaters.
