HS ch.9

Angiosperm radiation hypothesis

(Fruit tastes better than bugs) proposed thy primate traits were a response to the development of fruit bearing angiosperm plants

Late Miocene Ape Survivors

A few survivors of the habitat disruption evolved into modern apes; late Miocene apes may be common ancestors to African apes and hominins; not many fossils so link is unknown

Monkey go to South America

African and South American anthropoids both originated in Africa; did not evolve independently; no evidence of evolving from earlier anthropoids in North America and migrating to South America; no evidence of evolving from an independent prosimian lineage in South America; African origin supported by DNA evidence

Aegyptopithecus

Anthropoid; Likely ancestral to the catarrhines (old world primates)

Sivapithecus

Asia; Asian ancestor to orangutans due to skull similarities; even more similar to orangutans in the newly found Khoratpithecus

Gigantopithecus

Asia; large Asian ape nearly 3 meters tall; extinct around half million years ago

Late Miocene climate

Climate changes occurred during this time in Europe, Africa, and Asia

Branisella

Earliest known new world primate; bolivia; anthropoid monkeys "higher primate"; not related to early possible primate ancestors "proprimates" found in NA

First true primates

Euprimates (Eocene) early as 56mya; adapids and omomyids; widely diverse species most with small body size; may have evolved from proprimates in Paleocene; FIRST TRUE PRIMATES ARE MORE PRISIMIAN LIKE

Dryopithecus

Europe; larger than earlier apes; resembled living apes in many traits

Fayum Ancestors

Evidence of ancestors to old world primates at Fayum

Oreopithecus

Extinction of European Late Miocene Apes; are an example of an ape evolutionary dead end; fossils mostly in coal mines in Italy

First hominins

Gap in fossil record before first hominins appeared about 6 million years ago

Europe less tropical with less fruit trees

Late Miocene apes if Europe may have migrated back to Africa

Proconsul

One of the first apes; begin in Africa; Miocene deposits in Africa provide evidence for a group of primates called proconsulids (several species, proconsul best known)

Cenozoic geological time periods

Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene

Most likely origin of South American monkeys

Platyrrhines evolved from an African anthropoid; migrated across the Atlantic Ocean to South America (rafting); or migrated south on land to Antarctica and then to South America

Primates in the Paleocene

Plesiadapiforms; earliest primate ancestors; Western North America, Western Europe, Asia and possible Africa; NOT YET TRUE PRIMATES

Arboreal Hypothesis

Primate traits such as grasping hands and binocular vision were adaptions to life in the trees; moving from ground to trees caused selective pressures that resulted in the ancestral primate

Visual Predation hypothesis

Proposed that primate traits evolved in response to preying on insects and other small creatures; the exploitation of small prey resulted in the primate suite of adaptations

Primate evolution levels

Prosimians, Anthropoids, Hominoids, Hominins(ids)

Apes on the move

The fossil record suggests apes evolves in Africa and spread to Europe and Asia

New world ancestors

The origins of the platyrrhines are less clear

Grasslands and Woodlands

Tropical forests changed to cooler, drier mixed woodlands and grasslands; disappearance of fruit recourses commonly exploited by apes

Basal anthropoids

first of the monkey like primates; NO LONG PROSIMIAN LOOKING; become numerous in Oligocene (was also a period of global cooling and widespread plant and animal extinction); most primate fossils from period come from Fayum region of Egypt