Early Primates from the Paleocene Through Miocene Lab

Early Primates from the Paleocene Through Miocene Lab 12

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!

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 Fossils • Parapithecidae: anthropoid, similar to NW monkeys, ancestors of platyrrhines • Apidium • 2 -1 -3 -3 • Propliopithecidae: early catarrhine, ancestor to cercopithecoids and hominoids • Aegyptopithecus • **Y-5 molar pattern • Dental ape

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

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

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

Assignment • Lab 12. 1 All • Self-Test 12. 1 on own • One Step Further 12. 1