ANT 2511 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Hominidae, Gigantopithecus, Primate
Document Summary
Proconsul: african ape, 15+ species, most successful group of early to mid miocene, teeth and skulls like apes, bodies like monkeys. Europe: dryopithicus, oreopithicus and others are evolutionary dead ends. Acentral to khoratpithicus: 9-6 mya in thailand, direct ancestor of orangutans. Gigantopithecus: largest primate ever, 8 pya to 500,000 ya, may have coexisted with h. erectus. Late miocene fossil ancestors of african great apes and humans have not been identified. Social behaviors in primates enhance survival and reproduction and are thought to be maintained by natural selection. Advantages: protection from predators, improved access to food, access to mates, assistance in protecting and raising offspring, learning. Disadvantages: more visible to predators, only certain males mate with females. Primates have a wide variety of residence patterns, divided according to the number of adult males and females present in the group. Males compete for access to females; this affects male body and canine size. Sexual dimorphism: morphological differences between males and females.
