...LA Zoo Primates There are an absence of primates all over the world that show similar characteristic to humans. At the LA Zoo some of these characteristic from these primates can be found. Gorillas and chimps are both some of the most well know apes in the world making them the faces of primes. They are both fascinating and interesting animals. Gorillas are known to be one if not the largest primate in the world, males weighing all the way from 298 to 397 lbs and the females weighing about half of that from 150 to 249lbs. Do to their heavy weight the branches are not able to support their heavy weight therefore they tend to commute on the ground rather than traveling from tree to tree like other primate. Gorillas walk in a certain way called knuckle-walking. Males are able to reach a height of 5.6 to 5.9 ft tall and females reaching a height of no more than 4.6ft and having a shorter arm span than the males. Alongside with their size they...
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...that they lived in warm climates and were adapted to life in and around trees which supports the arboreal hypothesis proposed by Sir Grafton Elliot Smith and Frederic Wood Jones. The hypothesis explains that primates were adapted to live in trees thus the necessity of grasping hands and feet for grabbing branches, and binocular vision which led to better depth perception important for judging distance between trees. Grade I - The Lemuroids Evolving out of the late Paleocene and early Eocene Epoch . The Lemuroids were the first of the early primates to resemble primates that are living today. Equipped with a slightly larger brain, flat nails and changes to their cranial structure that indicate that they relied more on their vision than their predecessors. Grade II - The Tarsiers Eocene Epoch, a time period when the climate was pretty warm and several land bridges stretched between the continents. It is also during this epoch that major changes to fault lines occured. The Separation of Antartica and Australia created the circum-atlantic current which sparked a change in circulation patterns in the ocean resulting in global cooling, eventually leading to the Ice Age. This is when the Tarsiers came to be, most likely originating in asia Grade III - The Monkeys...
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...Primatology is the study of primates which enables modern day humans to study and understand different primates and their adaption behaviourally and anatomically to the environment (Ember et al. 2011:86). Primatology also allows modern humans to study the behavioural and anatomical features that are distinctly human (Haviland et al. 2012:53). Homo sapiens share more than 98% of their DNA with chimpanzees and slightly less with great apes, although there is such a huge DNA shared we are not the same but there are similarities between the two. The following essay is aimed at discussing the similarities, differences and behavioural differences that are present between Homo sapiens and the present day primates. Primates are very diverse group of animals and possess features which are common within the group (Haviland et al. 2012:53). One of the common characteristics among all primates is the ability to grasp objects due to their opposable thumbs that modern primates have developed in the past year which allows more precise and powerful grip (Ember et al. 2011:88-89). Primates have well developed vision because a large portion of their brains is devoted to vision than smell, which allows than to see things better than humans and all primates give birth to live and developed young which in turn have a longer dependency period on their parents in comparison to other animals (Ember et al. 2011:89). Life expectancy of primates is very high and primates have larger brains compared to...
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...Mid Term Essay Felicia Deremer Anth100 APUS Kristie Martin Mid Term Essay Anthropology is unique due to its concerning human nature which is broken down into four different subfields. The four major fields are Biological, Cultural, Linguistic and Archaeology anthropology all four fields have a very diverse approach to the study of humans. For example Cultural anthropologist are more focused on things like social and religious beliefs within the human species. While Biological (Physical) anthropologist are interested in the evolution of humans. Linguistic anthropologist study languages within the human’s species. And lastly Archaeology anthologists studies humans by fossil remains. While even though all four sub fields study the human with different approaches they all still use a scientific method in their researches to study human kind. I’m a primate. You’re a primate everyone reading this is a primate. We hear humans are primates, but what does that mean that humans are ancestors to apes? No not exactly it just means that we share similar traits with primates such as apes and chimpanzees. According to the Smithsonian magazine “humans share more DNA with lemurs, monkeys, and apes than they do with any other mammals.” Carl Linnaeus was the first to classify humans with monkeys and apes in his 18th century taxonomic system. So now that we know that we similar apes what traits do we really share. Well first vision humans an apes can both see color. The...
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...Midterm Exam Assessment Essay: “Chimpanzees are Human’s Closest Living Non-human Primate Relatives” Table of Contents Answer to letter A……………………………………………………………………..Pages 2 to 4 Answer to letter B………………………………………………………………………Pages 4 to 7 Answer to letter C………………………………………………………………………Pages 7 to 8 References…………………………………………………………………………………Page 9 For many years, scientists have supported through DNA and behavioral observation that chimpanzees are human’s closest relatives. Also, the advance in technology has enable scientists to find similarities and differences between humans and chimpanzees. DNA has revealed that Homo sapiens and chimpanzees are 98.5 to 99 percent identical. If an individual observes a chimpanzee, he or she will be surprised with the emotional, behavioral, and physical similarities one shares with the chimpanzees. A) The evidence that supports the statement that chimpanzees are Human’s closest living non-human Primate Relatives are DNA and the chimpanzee’s cultural behavior. DNA studies have shown that Homo sapiens and chimpanzees share 99 percent of identical DNA. In the article, “What Makes Us Human?” Katherine S. Pollard focuses on the 1 percent of DNA that makes humans and chimpanzees different. However, the findings revealed a closer relationship between humans and chimpanzees, and explanations of how genes have mutated throughout time. Pollard reports that the human accelerated region 1 (HAR1) “might be part of a gene new to science that is...
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...Fossil Record Evidence of Humanity and Its Variation From the Primate The early history of humans (homo-sapiens) is a contentious and heavily debated subject in the scientific community. Exactly when and from which ancestry our species evolved is a topic of speculation that many disagree on. What most in the scientific community can almost unanimously agree on is that homo-sapiens did indeed evolve from lesser beings. There is no shortage of fossil record indicating evolution as a force in this world’s early progression. The real debate begins with when humans arrived in the fossil record themselves. The function of this essay will be to first designate which characteristics define and distinguish humans from other animals and in particular other primates. Second it will serve to discuss the earliest fossil records of humanity and their significance scientifically. These conclusions will seek to provide a viable definition for the above posed question of the evolutionary root of homo-sapiens. In order to determine when humans first began showing up in fossil records one must assign humans recognizable and unique characteristics that can distinguish them from other primates that may have been similar in appearance and structure to homo-sapiens’ early ancestors. Prior to that designation though, one must ascertain why the distinction must be made at all. Why must a clear distinction be made from other primates and not from early reptiles or other mammals? The answer lies...
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...systems. Communication is essential for human beings. Language is the primary way in which adults pass ways of thinking and conversing on to their children. Language is an accumulation of knowledge because we learned everything by somebody through language. Society would have to recreate itself every generation if it could not pass its knowledge on through language. Language is one of the most powerful tools in human communication. Words are meant to establish and maintain friendly contact. Through words, people shape their identities. People can express their feelings, attitudes, and experiences to each other through words. By speaking, information can be give to others about oneself and the world around him/her. In Christine Leong's essay Being A Chink, she describes the power of language. She said, "It gives us identity, personality, social status, and it also creates communities, defining both insiders and outsiders. Language has the ability to heal or to harm, to praise or belittle, to promote peace or even to glorify hate." I believe this is what language is all about. Language has two purposes. Depending on what is said, and how others perceive what has been said, language can be helpful to the soul or destroy one's self-confidence. Words are intended to inform others so they can understand us. Words are not intended to establish superiority; if they are, people get hurt in the process. Language is a uniquely human trait, and questions of how and why it evolved have...
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...J412 Communicating Nature Case Study 7 December 2010 The Great Ape Project aims to give apes the same basic rights to life that humans have. Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer published a book in 1993 titled, “The Great Ape Project.” The novel is composed of different essays written by advocates of the projects who aim to discuss the ethology and ethics issues between human beings and apes. Cavalieri and Singer argue that we now have “sufficient information about the capacities of chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans to make it clear that the moral boundary we draw between us and them is indefensible.” The novel became instantly popular and eventually led to the creation of the self-titled Great Ape Project. The Great Ape Project was founded in 1994 and put into action six years later in Sorobaca City. The Great Ape Project is an international movement that “aims to defend the rights of the non-human great primates-chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom.” According to the project, the three main rights his project wants to ensure for apes include, the right to life, the protection of individual liberty, and the prohibition of torture. The Great Ape Project argues that apes deserve the right to live a higher standard of life. Studies have proven that chimpanzee’s are the closest relatives of human beings. Chimpanzees share 98.4% of the same DNA that human’s have. DNA tests also say that gorilla’s share 97.7% of the...
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...“A man will sometimes beat his wife if he becomes jealous or suspects her of infidelity, but when this happens, onlookers run to tell her female kin.” Pg. 81 | I’ve been in a situation like this before, my best-friend saved because my kin didn’t want to get in the middle of it as they would say. | “In some societies a woman’s kin, including her father and brothers, consistently support her against an abusive husband, while in others they rarely help her.” Why? Pg. 81 | A father and a brother should always be there to help a woman is abusive situations. I understand some don’t want to get involved but it’s your family we’re talking about. Most fathers and brothers I know are very protective of women in their family. | “Like nonhuman primate females, many women form bonds with unrelated males who may protect them from other males.” Pg. 81 | Me personally I have plenty of male friends that I know will protect me from an abusive male. They treat me as if I’m their blood sister...
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...Speech 101 Speech 4 April 6, 2011 Why Fathers should have Equal Rights? Due to problems arising out of bitter divorces, custody, and support battles fathers are ostracize out of their children’s life. Fathers are often looked at as the bad person when things go wrong and being the blame. Fathers are just as responsible for the child being born as the mother. Over the years fathers continue to fight for equal rights, mothers are looked at as the victims and often make false statements about the fathers to suit their own selfish needs. Accusations of sexual and child abuse by mothers of the noncustodial fathers are often found to be untrue. However women being resentful of their husbands because of infidelity making it impossible for them to think reasonable about what is best for the child, looking to please their needs. Not wanting the child around another woman, due to the emotional hurt she has suffer at the hands of the father. In turn mother turning the child against the father by putting him down in front of the child, saying bad things, trying to discourage the child from wanting to have a relationship their father, the angry spouse using the child as pawn through custody issues. Nevertheless custody being the dividing point between the parents. The courts being bias acting as the mother is the main caregiver, and sole provider of the child. The process is excessive inventionist of the courts in the life’s of the fathers they are examine with a fine tooth comb...
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...Interestingly, there is a group of living plants - the whisk ferns - which resembles Rhynia. Psilotum nudum which grows in moist, shady habitats in the Caribbean is such a plant. At one time, Psilotum was thought to be a surviving relative of Rhynia. It is, however, more generally thought to be a Fern Ally, related to the Ferns, with loss of features such as leaves and roots. Event 13 “IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CHORDATE” FINDING THE ANCESTOR OF VERTEBRATES (AND OURSELVES) 530 million years ago The Cambrian explosion created all the major phyla of animals that we have today. This includes the phyla Chordata (chordates). Primitive forms are creatures with evidence of a notochord, a structural rod of cartilage and neural tissue running down the long axis of the body. This notochord was the early precursor to the spine in vertebrates (animals with a true backbone, like fish), and modern examples of simple chordates include sea squirts and lancelets. Two Cambrian fossil localities are of key importance here: Chengjiang in Yunnan Province, southern China, and the Burgess Shales in the British Columbia Rockies of Canada. Both of these localities have produced fossils classified as chordates. The Chinese forms include the forms Myllokunmingia and Haikouichthys (it has even been suggested these could be primitive vertebrate jawless fish). The Canadian form (somewhat later in the Cambrian period) is Pikaia, which especially resembles the modern lancelet. Event 15 “GET OUT OF THE...
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...certain people and various aspects of culture. EVOLUTION Charles Darwin – proposed the mechanism of natural selection to account for the evolution of species. Basic Principles of the Natural Selection 1. Every species is composed of a variety of individuals, some which are better adapted to their environment than the others. 2. Offspring inherits traits from their parents at least to some degree. 3. Since better adapted individuals generally produce more offspring over the generations than the poorer adapted, the frequency of adoptive traits increases in subsequent generations. HUMAN EVOLUTION, Humans are primates, a general group having a boreal ancestry and characterized by grasping fingers and forward facing eyes capable of binocular vision. 2 Major Lines of Descent * Prosimeans - nocturnal lower primate: a nocturnal lower primate with large eyes and...
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...Whenever people find new fossils, especially paleoanthropologist, they get excited and want to look for more to know about the mysterious history of life on earth. Finally, in November 30, 1974, one lucky paleoanthropologist, Donald Johanson and his co-worker Tom Gray found my fossil at Hadar, Ethiopia. From now on people could know that I existed once on this earth a long time ago. I say lucky, because my body was covered by tons of volcanic ash and mud for millions of years, but Hadar’s long rain washed off the dust from my body. That kind of rain does not often happen in Hadar. I was a new species of Australopithecus afarensis and extinct hominid that lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago. Donald Johanson and his co-workers were very happy and did not sleep that night. They had been playing the Beatle’s song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds over and over again at their camp. So I had been named Lucy and gave more insight to the evolution of humans and apes. The scientists are not really sure about what I was; human or ape. I had a low forehead, a bony ridge over the eyes, a flat nose, no chin, more humanlike teeth, pelvis and leg bones that resembled those of modern man. My body was smaller than my male friends and the relationship of sexual dimorphism and social group structure was like a modern ape. My father had a number of wives and lived in family groups. It was not like then gorillas; more sexually dimorphic than humans or chimpanzees. Scientists assume I lost of...
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...Meerkat The meerkat or suricate, Suricata suricatta, is a small mammal belonging to the mongoose family. Meerkats live in all parts of theKalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan". A meerkat clan often contains about 20 meerkats, but some super-families have 50 or more members. In captivity, meerkats have an average life span of 12–14 years, and about half this in the wild. ------------------------------------------------- Name "Meerkat" is a loanword from Afrikaans. The name has a Dutch origin but by misidentification. Dutch meerkat refers to the "guenon", a monkey of the Cercopithecus genus. The word "meerkat" is Dutch for "lake cat", but the suricata is not in the cat family, and neither suricatas nor guenons are attracted to lakes; the word possibly started as a Dutch adaptation of a derivative of Sanskrit markaţa मर्कट = "monkey", perhaps in Africa via an Indian sailor on board a Dutch East India Company ship. The traders of the Dutch East India Company were likely familiar with monkeys, but the Dutch settlers attached the name to the wrong animal at the Cape. The suricata is calledstokstaartje = "little stick-tail" in Dutch. According to African popular belief (mainly in the Zambian/Zimbabwean region), the meerkat is also known as the sun angel, as it protects villages from the moon devil or the werewolf which is believed to attack stray...
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...bellwether differences between apes and humans, like toolmaking, fall away. Chimpanzees use leaves as seats, as it turns out; they fashion a kind of footwear to protect themselves from thorns; they ''fish'' for termites with twigs and reeds they strip and cut for the occasion. But surely culture itself remains impregnable, a fortress where the superiority of human beings, steeped in teaching, learning, language, art and cuisine, still resides. Let Bonzo try to get a table at Elaine's. Now along comes one of the world's most distinguished primatologists, intent on breaching this last bastion of anthropocentrism. A professor of primate behavior at Emory University and the director of the Living Links Center, de Waal draws on more than 30 years of his own research among captive monkeys, bonobos and other chimpanzees, as well as on studies of wild primates by colleagues around the world, to poke ''a maximum number of holes in the nature/culture divide.'' Culture -- behavior learned from others -- was long vaunted as inimitably human. But de Waal points out how tired this presumption is. Monkeys teach their siblings how to wash sweet potatoes in the ocean; chimpanzee mothers show their young how to use stones to crack nuts; apes learn to medicate themselves with herbs. In 1999, an international survey of wild chimpanzees published in Nature described 39 distinct behavior patterns. In other words, separate communities of chimpanzees, even in the same environment, develop different...
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