ANTH 1001 Lecture : Anthro Notes
Document Summary
Suite of traits that characterizes primates: prehensile (i. e. , grasping) hands and feet, nails, not claws, increased reliance on vision. Eyes positioned at front of skull, providing 3d vision: decreased reliance on smell. Short snout: postorbital bar, increase size of brain, give birth to one or two offspring, long period of juvenile development. Theories on adaptive significance of traits that characterize primates (pp. Early primates were adapting to life in the trees: visual predation theory. Early primates were predators of insects: fruit eating theory. Dental formula: number of incisors, canines, premolars, and molars. I, c, pm, m/i, c, pm, m (maxilla and mandible: always symmetry in number of teeth in left and right halves of maxilla (upper jaw) and of mandible (lower jaw, dental formula shows only half of the dentition. Dietary categories: insectivory- insects, frugivory- fruit, folivory- foliage (e. g. , leaves, vines, omnivory- varied diet. Categories of locomotion: vertical clinging and leaping, quadrupedalism, arm-swinging, brachiation, bipedality.
