1. Robert Banks and Jeffrey Kaldahl
Primate Evolution
Robert Banks and Jeffrey Kaldahl

2. What is a Primate?
Defined as an order of mammals with a large brain and complex feet and hands
Well known primates include monkeys, apes and lemurs

3. First Primate
First Primate believed to originate 65 m.y.a. in the Tertiary
First fossil records do not come about until near the end of the Tertiary Period in the Eocene
First known primate is the Plesiadapiformes

4. Plesiadapiformes

5. Plesiadapiformes
Earliest fossil dates them back to the Palaeocene about m.y.a.
Are not classifed as primates of modern aspect, but could be ancestral to the rest of the primate order
Could be a separate branch of Primate not like the current two Prosimii and Anthropoidea

7. Eocene Primate More modern like primates
Two main primates both considered to be in the Prosimii
Adapidae
Larger animals
Kind of like a modern lemur
Omomyidae
Smaller animal
Eyes went to front of the skull and they lost the claws and got flattened nails

8. Adapidae

9. Differences in Prosimii and Anthropoidea
Wet noses
Unfused mandible- separate left and right bone
Elongated Snout
Anthropoidea
Fused mandible
Greater degree of midline fusion of the skull bones
Single frontal bone
Dry nose
Reduced Snout

10. Prosimii Anthropoidea

11. Differences Prosimii Anthropoidea Dental formula of 2.1.3.3/2.1.3.3
Only clawed primate
Nocturnal
Tails
Anthropoidea
Dental formula of /
Ear morphology
Cranial bones
No Tail
Nails

12. Teeth

13. Skull

14. Miocene Primate 26-7 m.y.a Size increases No tail Longer arms
Modern Apes
Gibbons
Orangutan
Gorilla
Chimpanzee

15. Gibbons
Small bodied
3 feet tall
12-24 lbs
Long arms with curved hands to help with climbing and swinging (brachiation)

16. Orangutan Largest of the apes from Asia
41/2 feet tall
lbs
Males often larger stay on ground
Also have a huge fleshy pads framing the upper part of their faces
Females and infants stay in trees and use brachiation

17. Gorilla Largest of the Apes More muscle Knuckle walkers 6 ft tall
lbs
9-10 ft wingspan
More muscle
Knuckle walkers

18. Chimpanzee Small ape Also knuckle walkers
51/2 ft tall
lbs
Also knuckle walkers
More closely related to humans than gorillas

19. References
view=detail&id=4B40D5C8F5C2A985EB7BDABBD2CC AFA310C38626&first=1&FORM=IDFRIR&qpvt=chimpa nzee
Ross, C. (1996). Adaptive Explanation for the Origins of the Anthropoidea. American Journal of Primatology 40:
Tattersall, I. (1993). The Human Odyssey Four Million Years of Human Evolution. Pg

20. References Sellers, B. (2000). Primate Evolution. Lecture. Pg.1-18.
Gebo, D.L. (2004). A shrew-sized origin for primates. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 47:40-62.

21. Question?