ANTH 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 39: Prehensile Tail, Ape

• School: WWU, Western
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 102
• Professor: Rollins

Document Summary

The earliest platyrrine fossils (new world monkeys) (in southe america) are only about 25 million years old. Dna indicates the last common ancestor of all extant populations was 27-31 million years ago and the split between old and new world monkeys happened about 40 million years ago. Means they did(cid:374)(cid:859)t fossilize for a fe(cid:449) (cid:373)illio(cid:374) years of (cid:449)e ha(cid:448)e(cid:374)(cid:859)t fou(cid:374)d the(cid:373) yet. A(cid:374) afri(cid:272)a(cid:374) origi(cid:374) for platyrrhi(cid:374)es is suggested (cid:271)y the (cid:858)rafti(cid:374)g(cid:859) a(cid:374)d (cid:858)isla(cid:374)d hoppi(cid:374)g(cid:859) hypotheses but the geological evidence for these is inconclusive (cid:858)rafti(cid:374)g(cid:859) big chunks of coast float and drift away. Can be lower sea levels more land exposed---island hopping then possible. Preconsul, an early hominoid, found in sites in east africa (21-17 million years ago), possible least common ancestor of extinct and extant apes. Proconsul has features of apes today but much smaller creatures. No tail, flexible shoulder girdle etc. , see in proconsul.