This is actually a very ancient trait. The earliest mammals had five digits, and over time, many mammalian lineages lost a few fingers and toes while primates kept all of them. And in general, primates tend to have larger brains than other mammals of a similar size. They also have smaller litters—often just one baby at a time—and longer periods of gestation and childhood.
Some researchers think the earliest primates lived in trees, so good vision and dexterity would have been helpful in judging distances between branches or for climbing around. Both factors, as well as many others, could have played a role. Erin Wayman is a science and human evolution blogger for Hominid Hunting. She has M. As in biological anthropology and science writing. Post a Comment. Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Kathryn Orzech at.
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Information on the Internet Primate Info Net A searchable database of primate information run by the University of Wisconsin The Primates Topic Menu Clearly organized information about the Order Primates with information pages, flash cards to review information and interactive crossword puzzles to test your new knowledge Animal Diversity Web: Order Primates A comprehensive site with information about primates as well as many images of primates, specimens for example, photographs of primate skulls and jaws and sounds made by primates.
Valley Zoo School Primate Research Results Information on five kinds of primates as well as classification information and some primate links put together by a Canadian primary school. Also has teacher resources like a kid-friendly primate observation sheet on the school's home page. Gombe Page Several fun chimp and primate-themed quizzes along with video clips of Jane Goodall greeting an audience with chimp sounds and talking about the Gombe chimpanzees.
References 1 Falk, Dean. Primate Diversity. The more advanced primates are placed together into a group known as the haplorrhines. The primates included in this group are the:. The tiny tarsiers share many features with monkeys and apes but also retain some primitive strepsirrhine-like features. There are more than 10 species and all are nocturnal active at night. Tarsiers live in forests on parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Tarsiers are now considered to be close relatives of monkeys and apes because, like monkeys and apes, they have following features which evolved more recently:. There are two major groups of monkeys. One group with about species is known as the New World monkeys and includes the marmosets, tamarins, howler monkeys and spider monkeys.
These monkeys are mostly tree-dwellers. New World monkeys are found in Central and South America. There are about species of Old World monkeys including baboons, macaques, rhesus monkeys and colobus monkeys. Most live in trees although some live fully or partly on the ground.
Old World monkeys are more closely related to apes than to New World monkeys because, like apes, they have:.
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