ANTH 4030 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Postorbital Bar, List Of Fossil Primates, Postorbital Bone
1 Jun 2014
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Document Summary
General patterns of morphology and phylogenetics for fossil primates. What a hominin is in terms of taxonomy. Changes in dental/cranial features: eyes placed on side of head, , enlarged incisors. Recent: plesiadapids not primates: no postorbital bar, claws instead of nails, More recent: plesiadapids & few others are primates. Three (3) haplorhine features: fused frontal bone, full postorbital closure, & fused mandibular symphasis. Primates appear for first time in fossil record of south america towards late oligocene. Origins of south american primate unclear: may have rafted over from africa. 3 sequential sub-epochs for apes: early miocene apes, mid miocene apes, & late miocene apes. Two main taxa: fossil cercopithecinae & fossil colobinae. Shape and size of canines, especially in males, changes so not pointy or blade-like. Reduction in level of sexual dimorphism in canine size. Mosaic evolution: major evolutionary changes tend to take place in stages, not all at once.
