Anthro 225

Eocene

(55.8-33 mya.) First euprimates early strepsirhines and haplorhines

Paleocene

(65-55 MYA) - Appearance of plesiadapiforms

Eocene

-Appeared in earliest Eocene 56 mya -Several definitive primate features -Could possibly be in the paleocene but we're unsure -Also rodents and bats appearing -Forward facing eyes, enlarged postorbital brain, relying more on vision, developed fingernails, opposable big toes (this is why they're "true primates")

Carbon-14 dating

-Ratio of carbon 12 (normal) to carbon 14 (unstable) -Ratio determines how long an organism has been dead -Carbon 14 is continuously made, absorbed by plants via rainfall -All living things have same amount of carbon 14 and decay at a steady rate -Can be used with tree-ring dating, calibrated (literal or uncalibrated (overestimate)

Plesiadapiforms

-Skeletons look like they could be ancestral to primates, but teeth, skulls and jaw are too specialized -Appeared before rodents -Were very common everywhere -Adapted for wide variety of habitats and ecologies -Skull looks kind of like a rodent sometimes, sometimes they look like primates Started in dinosaur era, EXTINCT in Eocene

Grithopithecus

17 mya in Greece; first definite ape

Aegyptopithecus

2.1.2.3; all monkeys and apes share this arrangement, best guess of ancestors of old world monkeys and apes

Miocene

23 mya - 5.3 mya: Continued radiation of mammals and angiosperms; apelike ancestors of humans appear.

Oligocene

33-23 mya early catarrhines, precursors to monkeys and apes

Pilocene

5.3-2.6 may early hominid diversification

Proconsul

A genus of early Miocene proconsulids from Africa, ancestral to catarrhines.

Ouranopithecus

A genus of fossil ape that lived in Greece during the Late Miocene that might be an ancestor of African apes and humans.

Uranium-lead dating

A method of dating zirconium crystals in igneous rocks that is based on the ratio of uranium to lead.

Flourine Dating

A relative (chemical) dating method that compares the accumulation of fluorine in animal and human bones from the same site.

Luminescence dating

A relative dating method in which the energy trapped in a material is measured when the object was last heated. -"loose electrons"

isotopic analysis

An important source of information on the reconstruction of prehistoric diets, this technique analyzes the ratios of the principal isotopes preserved in human bone; in effect the method reads the chemical signatures left in the body by different foods. Isotopic analysis is also used in characterization studies.

Adapoids include?

Darwinius, Afradapis, and Adapis

Paranthropus robustus

Dished face, small front teeth and big back teeth probably when they had no choice but to eat what they didn't like

Pleistocene

Early homo and its descendants

Absolute Dating Methods

Finding the ACTUAL age of something (C14 dating, molecular dating)

Hominoids

First true apes

Oligocene

Fossils are only found in El Fayum Egypt -Unsure how monkeys got to the new world, best guess is sand hopping but we don't have a good answer

Dryopithecus

Genus of apes from the later Miocene found primarily in Europe. It had thin tooth enamel and pointed molar-cusps very similar to those of the fruit-eating chimpanzees of today. Evolves from Grithopithicus and spreads to asia

Of European decent after Afropithecus

Grithopithecus, Dryopithecus, and Ouranopithecus

Taphonmy

How did bones get where they were discovered

Paleopoetry

Imaginative reconstruction of the past

Potassium-argon dating

In archaeology and paleoanthropology, a technique of chronometric dating that measures the ratio of radioactive potassium to argon in volcanic debris associated with human remains.

Amino Acid Racemization

Looking at amino acids from living isomers to dead isomers "How long would it take for this much to turn into that much?"

Paleomagnetism

Looking for magnetic reversal in water deposit "barcode"

Saadanius

early catarrhine oligocene genus from a group of primates that gave rise to later catarrhines

Apidium

Oligocene -2.1.3.3 arrangement ; maybe ancestors of new world monkeys?

Types of Euprimates

Omomyoids and Adapoids

Large brain size

Primate social living Radiator and expensive tissue hypothesis

Postcranial

Referring to all or part of the skeleton not including the skull. The term originates from the fact that in quadrupeds, the body is in back of the head; the term literally means "behind the head."

Orthograde

Referring to an upright body position. This term relates to the position of the head and torso during sitting, climbing, etc., and doesn't necessarily mean that an animal is bipedal.

Adapoids

Similar to modern lemurs -Unsure how they're related -Some may have gone to Madagascar and not needed to evolve, resulting in Lemurs, could have been island hoping

Omomyoids

Similar to modern tarsiers in teeth -large orbits -small snouts -possible basal haplorhine

Asian Apes

Sivapithecus and Gigantopithecus

Holocene

The current interglaciation period, extending from 10,000 years ago to the present on the geologic time scale.

Reproductive Ecology

The study of reproductive functioning as an interaction between an organism and it's environment Most males were born, lived, and died where they were found most females were born and lived somewhere else and died somewhere (joining different group at reproductive age)

Microwear studies

The study of the patterns of wear or damage on the edge of stone tools, which provides valuable information on the way in which the tool was used. or is it teeth???

Miocene

Victoriapithecus- 19mya in Africa -specialized out of Oligocene ancestor -can be ancestor of all modern monkeys or modern old world monkeys

Mosaic evolution

a phenotypic pattern that shows how different traits of an organism, responding to different selection pressures, may evolve at different rates

Biostratigraphy

a relative dating technique based on the regular changes seen in evolving groups of animals as well as the presence or absence of particular species "They look similar"

Superorder

a taxonomic group ranking above an order and below a class or subclass

Fission track dating

an absolute dating method based on the measurement of the number of tracks left by the decay of uranium-238

Sivapithecus

ancestor to modern day orangutans

Key-indicator species

animal species with very particular habitat requirements

Relative dating

any method of determining whether an event or object is older or younger than other events or objects

Proconsuloids

ape-like precursors of hominoids -have Y-5 molars -not 100% ape

Climate forcing models

change in earths orbit around the sun or tectonic changes cause climate change that influenced evolution

Crown group, stem group

crown group-consists of the living representatives of the collection together with their ancestors back to their most recent common ancestor as well as all of that ancestor's descendants. It is thus a clade, a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. stem group-paraphyletic group composed of a pan-group or total group, above, minus the crown group itself (and therefore minus all living members of the pan-group). This leaves primitive relatives of the crown groups, back along the phylogenetic line to (but not including) the last common ancestor of the crown group and their nearest living relatives

Afropithecus

first ape-like primate to leave Africa (17.5 mya) through arabian peninsula developed into true apes

Adapis

first primate fossil described by a scientist

Ecological functional morphology

how an animal's morphology relates to its environment and ecology

Gigantopithecus

largest primate ever

Strepsirhines

lemurs and lorises

Darwinius

most complete fossil primate ever found

Bipedal locomotion consists of

movement of foramen magnum neck muscles vertebrae (size, curves, ribs) limb proportions pelvis and gluteal muscles angled femur; knee joints foot skeleton

Red Queen Model

population level competition within specific habitats is more significant than environmental factors "if our species is a little bit better we will survive and they won't"

Haplorhines

tarsiers, monkeys, apes, humans

Encephalization

the degree to which brain size exceeds body size

taxonomic uniformitarianism

the ecology of modern organisms is used to interpret the ecology of ancient and extinct closest relatives

Stratigraphy

the study of rock layers and the sequence of events they reflect