ANTC17H3 Lecture Notes - Hominidae, Prosimian, Autapomorphy
7 May 2012
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Document Summary
When we look into human evolution we must start at the beginning and look to the earliest of our ancestors, the earliest members of our order primates. What exactly is a primate: opposable thumb, infant dependency, stereoscopic vision and vision is the dominant sense (dogs smell, clavicle, large brain relative to body size. In order to understand the past, we rely on models of associated behavior in the present: uniformitarianism. The idea that things behave the way we do today cuz of the they did in the past: parsimony or occam"s razor. If there are many explanations, usually the simplest one is the right one. Arboreal mammals (adaptation to live in trees) Manipulate an arboreal environment through grasping and dexterous hands and feet. Fossils bones and teeth how are we going to use these fossils to distinguish them to be primate vs. dogs or cat: dentition, crania.
