Today’s Topics

• This Part of Course will Address the Questions:

– Where Did We Come From?

– How Does Our Biology Influence Our Behavior & Culture?

– What Can We Learn About Ourselves from Our Closest Relatives?

• Our Closest Relatives—The Primates

• Film: Among the Wild Chimpanzees

Our Heritage As Primates

Our Place Among the Primates

Primate Characteristics

• Grasping Hands & Feet

– Opposable Thumbs (& Big Toes)

• Reliance on Sight

– Stereoscopic & Binocular Vision

• Relatively Large Brains

– Especially for Memory, Learning, Thinking

• Parental Investment

– Long Learning Period; Single Offspring

• Sociality / Group Life

Living Primate Distribution

• Most Primates Live in Tropics

• Arboreal Heritage

Prosimians

• One of Two Major Groups of Primates

• Lemurs, Lorises, Tarsiers

• Earliest Group of Primates

• Arboreal & Nocturnal

Anthropoids

• Second Major Group of Primates

• Monkeys

– New World

– Old World

• Apes

– Gibbons

– Orangutans

– Gorillas

– Chimpanzees

• Humans

New World Monkeys

• Capuchins, Spider Monkeys, Howler Monkeys

• Prehensile Tails

• All Arboreal & All But One Diurnal

Old World Monkeys

• Baboons & Macaques

• Tails Not Prehensile

• Arboreal & Terrestrial

• Diurnal

• Often Pronounced Sexual Dimorphism