Anthropology 1026F/G Lecture : The Oligocene
10 Feb 2012
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Document Summary
A generalized catarrhine not a monkey or an ape but it resembled today"s gibbons. Its eyes faced forwards, giving it stereoscopic vision. The first fossils were thought to be from a type of a cow. Primate living in the early oligocene, roughly 36 to 32 million years ago. Fossils of the earlier species are rare but fossils of the later species are fairly common. Apidium are stem anthropoids that possess all the hallmarks of modern anthropoidea and their ancestry is closely tied to the eocene asian groups. These primates appear to have been frugivorous, arboreal, and diurnal, with keen eyesight. Because of their dentition people believe they existed before the split of old and new world monkeys. Many were old world monkeys that were found in egypt. Have many traits that distinguish them from prosimians: Larger bodies -larger brains relatively to body weight -reduced dependency on smell. Different blood supply to brain -less specialized dentition anatomy.
