Characteristics:  Mammals  Hair  5 Flexible Fingers/Toes  Nurse their young  Complex Social Behavior Examples: Shrews, Lemurs, Monkeys, Apes, Humans

 Primates have a thumb which bends toward the other fingers.  It is used for gripping.  Apes also have opposable toes.

~65 million years ago, dinosaurs became extinct Plants & animals adapted to fill new empty habitats (niches) 2 Subgroups of Primates: Prosimians Anthropoids Diagram courtesy of:

First primates What characteristic of the prosimians below allows them to be nocturnal and arboreal?

2 eyes see different images Brain merges them together Gives greater depth perception

Evolved from prosimians Larger Diurnal (daytime activity) Arboreal Larger brain May be Quadrupedal May have Prehensile tail (wraps around branches) Includes Hominoids and monkeys

 Began as small and arboreal apes  Now, includes apes and hominins (once called hominids)  Some quadrupedal some bipedal  May use “knuckle-walking”

 Group of hominoids  Separated from apes 4-5 million years ago  Probably began in Africa  Humans & their closest fossil relatives  Bipedal  Enlarged brain

 Australopithecus afarensis  Over 3,000,000 years old  40% complete

Primates Prosimians Anthropoids Hominoids Monkeys Ponginae (orangutans) Homininae Hominin (humans and their ancestors) Panin (chimps and gorillas)