1. Early Primates from the Paleocene Through Miocene
Lab 12

2. Exam’s
Not so good…..
Here is your exam, take it home and correct the mutilple choice mistakes and I will give you half credit
Attach old/new scantron with the exam copy
Only Questions 1-35
DUE NEXT CLASS!

3. Intro
By studying early primates, we understand human and primate evolution
We look at fossils (former living things that have organic material replaced by sediment)

4. Time Scales
Time scale chart on page 280. I don’t test on time periods, but this is a good reference
Plate Tectonics: plates of crust under the earth’s surface that move around through continental drift
This and the paleoclimate changed the earth through time, and changed the environments and adaptations of living things

5. Primate Beginnings: Paleocene
66-55 mya
Earliest primates from N America
N America, Europe and Asia were joined into Laurasia
Africa, S America and Antarctica was Gondwanaland
Climate was warm and humid: tropical rainforests

7. Primate Beginnings: Paleocene
Primates branched out from mammalian tree 60+ mya
Plesiadapiforms were early mammals with primate features (molars, arboreal adaptations)
75 species
Table 12.2 compares these to modern primates
Probably went extinct because of competition with rodents

8. “True” Primates of Eocene
56-34 mya
Drastic climate change as N America split from Europe
Colder climates
200 primate species
Adapidae
Omomyoidae

9. Ancestors Adapoids: Ancestors of strepsirhines (lemurs, lorises…)
Omomyoids: Ancestors of haplorhines (but very much like tarsier)
Other ancestors on page 282

10. Oligocene Primates 34-23 mya
Most Eocene primates went extinct when the temperatures dropped again
Not many fossils, except from Fayum Depression
in Oligocene, 2 important fossils: Parapithecidae and Propliopithecidae

11. 2 Fossils
Parapithecidae: anthropoid, similar to NW monkeys, ancestors of platyrrhines
Apidium
Propliopithecidae: early catarrhine, ancestor to cercopithecoids and hominoids
Aegyptopithecus
**Y-5 molar pattern
Dental ape

12. Miocene Hominoids 53-23 mya warming period First apes, arboreal
Ape-like head and body with ape and monkey features

13. Miocene Hominoids African forms: Proconsul
When temperatures dropped and ice caps got bigger, land bridges formed and apes migrated to Europe and Asia

14. Miocene Hominoids Asian forms:
Sivapithecus: in lab you will determine who this is an ancestor to
Gigantopithecus: largest primate ever to have lived; possibly co-existed with humans

16. Assignment
Lab 12.1 All
Self-Test 12.1 on own
One Step Further 12.1