ANT101H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Haplorhini, Ape, Catarrhini
Document Summary
Primates: characteristic and anatomical adaptations: generalized, page 117 -121, the two most important adaptations for primates are their grasping hands and feet, (imposable thumbs and toes, nails and claws) and their vision. Most primates have developed colour vision, with eyes in the front of their head, and a bigger brain section focused on vision: they have a longer childhood and greater dependency on behavioural flexibility. So they ate the flowers, their seeds and also their fruits which were all coloured. Their vision was used to see the food and their grasping hands to pick it: they were adapted to hunting small prey such as insects, having to see them clearly and catch them quickly. This depended on their vision instead of sound: these are all complementary theories, diet and teeth, primates have generalized medium sized teeth, there are only two differences. It tells us about how they moved and what kind of environment they lived in.