Primates

Share a Common Ancestor, prosimians, monkeys, apes, humans. Relevant Lifestyle features Colour Vision Grasping hands Forward facing eyes. Dependent infants. Social groups. Large cranial capacity in relation to body size.

Prosimian Exhibit some features similar to early ancestor. But have specialised to their own selection pressures so not the same as the early ancestor.

Loris,bush baby, lemur

Use scent to communicate Tail for balance.

Monkeys and Apes. New World Monkeys have developed a prehensile tail. All live in trees (arboreal). Need colour vision and vocalisation to communicate. Facial features important. Range of locomotion styles.

Golden Lion Tamarin

Old World Monkeys Live in the Old World (Africa and Asia) Terrestrial and arboreal dwelling. No prehensile tails. Still need Colour vision and vocalisation to communicate. Facial features important. Range of locomotion styles.

Apes Live in Asia and Africa. No tails. Vocalisation. Locomotion styles significant. Brachiation, knuckle walking, quadrapedalism, bipedalism.

Orangutan, Bonobo, Gorilla, Chimp

Locomotion? Tool user – solves problems.

Locomotion? Problem solving?

Locomotion? Communication

Hominins Humans and Human ancestors. Bipedal Large cranial capacity with respect to body size. Opposable thumb Other primate features.

Relevant Lifestyle features Colour Vision because Grasping hands developed to extreme in Forward facing eyes because Large cranial capacity (in relation to body size) because Dependent infants – cultural evolution Social groups – cultural evolution

Primates are a Mammalian group Characterised by adaptations for climbing trees although many different types of locomotion Primates are characterized by their large brains, relative to other mammals, an increased reliance on stereoscopic vision at the expense of smell, the dominant sensory system in most mammals.stereoscopic most also have opposable thumbs and some have prehensile tails.opposable thumbsprehensile

Many species are sexually dimorphic, which means males and females have different physical traits, including body mass, canine tooth size, and coloration.sexually dimorphic Primates have slower rates of development than other similarly sized mammals, and reach maturity later but have longer lifespans. Some species live in solitude, others live in male–female pairs, and others live in groups of up to hundreds of members.