ANT333Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Tamandua, Muriqui, Night Monkey
Document Summary
Given diff in tail morphology, does the prehensile tail of cebus and alouatta fulfill sim ecological roles: cebus is smaller than atelines. Grasping appendages hand of howler monkey: natural gap between 2nd and 3rd digits: different from humans evolution of grasping hands and feet and a divergent hallux bearing a flattened nail occurred early in primate evolution initial changes in primate prehension were associated with exploitation of food resources such as ripe fruits, floral nectar, and mobile insect prey located on small, flexible supports, more likely for smaller animals, what about bigger animals Morphology of prehensile tails prehensile tails are typically heavier (weigh more) than non prehensile tail tail length/head body length not so much that prehensile tails are long, uniformly variable numbers of caudal vertebrae: meissner"s corpuscles are touch sensitive structures under the skin, found on soles of hands and feet in humans, a friction/traction device, more grasping ability.
