ANT100Y1 Lecture : Primate

• School: UTSG
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANT100Y1
• Professor: Christopher Watts

Document Summary

Major epochs during tertiary period (changes in middle of earth as deeper and deeper) Paleocene & primate-like mammals: plesiadapiformes (look like squirrels) Body size: tiny, shrew-sized to size of small dog. Niche: likely solitary, nocturnal quadrupeds; well-developed sense of smell. Used to be classified as primates because of primate-like teeth and limbs that are adapted for arboreal lifestyle. Eyes placed on side of head, & More recent: plesiadapids & few others are primates. Ice masses form, world gets drier, oceans shrink and plants don"t form as well . Diurnal and nocturnal forms: mainly arboreal quadrupeds, some may have been specialized leapers, smaller adapids ate mostly fruit and insects, larger forms ate fruit and leaves, led to lemurs?? (similarity doesn"t equate with close phylogenetic relationship) World looks more like today but not quite . Three (3) haplorhine features: fused frontal bone, full postorbital closure, & fused. Three taxonomic groups: parapithecidae, propliopithecidae, and platyrrhini.