primate

Examples of primate in the following topics:

• Primates

  • The evolutionary history of primates can be traced back 65 million years.
  • Primates are mammals that include simians and prosimians.
  • Primates vary in size and weight.
  • Three-color vision has developed in many primates.
  • For this reason, most primates are at least partially arboreal.

• Characteristics and Evolution of Primates

  • The Order Primates is divided into two groups: prosimians and anthropoids.
  • The first primate-like mammals are referred to as proto-primates.
  • The oldest known primate-like mammal with a relatively robust fossil record is Plesiadapis (although some researchers do not agree that Plesiadapis was a proto-primate).
  • Fossils of this primate have been dated to approximately 55 million years ago.
  • These early primates resembled present-day prosimians such as lemurs.

• Homo sapiens

  • Humans (Homo sapiens) are distinct from non-human primates in their upright walking, abstract reasoning, language skills, and problem solving.
  • Humans (variously Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens sapiens) are primates and the only existing species of the genus Homo.
  • Humans are distinguished from other primates by their bipedal locomotion and by their relatively larger brain with its particularly well-developed neocortex, prefrontal cortex, and temporal lobes, which enable high levels of abstract reasoning, language, problem solving, and culture through social learning.
  • The modern human brain, typically 1,400 cm³, is much larger than that of other primates.

• Human vs. Animal Language

  • What about nonhuman primates, who share many similarities with humans?
  • Nonhuman primates communicate in ways that are very similar to those used by humans; however, there are important differences as well.
  • Second, and more importantly, nonhuman primates (and other animals who communicate with one another) have what is known as a closed vocal system: this means different sounds cannot be combined together to produce new symbols with different meanings.
  • One of the most famous case studies in the debate over how complex nonhuman-primate language can be is Koko the gorilla.
  • Koko is famous for having learned over a thousand signs of "Gorilla Sign Language," a simple sign language developed to try to teach nonhuman primates complex language.

• Early Homo

  • The Homo genus, to which humans belong, evolved from our close primate relatives, Australopithecus, and is distinguished by cranial size.
  • Though the intelligence of these early hominins was probably no more sophisticated than that of modern chimpanzees, the bipedal (two-legged) stature is the key evidence that distinguishes the group from previous primates, who were quadrupeds (four-legged).

• Animals and Culture

  • Much cultural anthropological research has been done on non-human primates, due to their close evolutionary proximity to humans.
  • In non-primate animals, research tends to be limited, so the evidence for culture is lacking.

• The Origins of Language

  • Those who see language as being mostly innate, such as Steven Pinker, hold the precedents to be animal cognition, whereas those who see language as a socially learned tool of communication, such as Michael Tomasello, see it as having developed from animal communication, either primate gestural or vocal communication.
  • Theories that stress continuity often look at animals to see if, for example, primates display any traits that can be seen as analogous to what pre-human language must have been like.

• Interosseous Membranes

  • One of the traits that characterizes primates such as humans is having two bones in the forearm and the leg.
  • These bones, joined by the interosseous membrane, allow primates to move more adaptively and flexibly in their environments than would otherwise be the case if the bones were fused.

• Early Human Evolution

  • The family Hominidae of order Primates includes chimpanzees and humans .
  • The term hominin (or hominid) is used to refer to those species that evolved after this split of the primate line, thereby designating species that are more closely related to humans than to chimpanzees.

• Comparative Psychology

  • Research in this area addresses many different issues, uses many different methods, and explores the behavior of many different species, from insects to primates.
  • There has always been interest in studying various primate species; important contributions to social and developmental psychology were made by Harry F.