ANTH EXAM 2

What is a behavior?

"All the actions and inactions of an organism"

What is a Hominidae?

(humans!) aka greater apes, tribe orangutans, tribe gorillas, and tribe Hominini-humans, bonobos and chimps

Primates clearly have evolved by which epoch?

- Primates have evolved • Full suite of characters - forward-facing eyes surrounded by a postorbital bar - short snouts - relatively large brains - nails instead of claws - hind limb-dominated locomotion - grasping hands and feet

What is more energetically costly, pregnancy or lactation?

Lactation (around 50% more energy)

What is the basic social unit in all primates?

Mother-infant bond

What is the neocortex? What is the neocortex ratio?

Part of brain in the forebrain. size of neocortex relative to volume of the entire brain.

What is basal metabolic rate? Do smaller or larger animals have a more efficient basal metabolic rate?

Rate at which an animal burns energy while at rest. Larger animals have a more efficient rate.

What is a tapetum lucidum?

Reflective layer in back of eye

What is a paleoanthropologist?

branch of archaeology with a human focus, which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans

What is homiothermy?

warm blooded

What is an insectivore? Folivore? Gummivore? Frugivore?

• Insectivores (insects) • Folivores (leaves) • Frugivores (fruits) • Gummivores (tree sap and gum)

What is a "strategy"?

• Set of behavior patterns that has become prominent in a population as a result of natural selection Functional, evolved behaviors. NOT CONSCIOUS DECISIONS.

What are the basic rules of mammalian reproduction?

• Sexual reproduction • Female gestation • Female lactation

What types of defensive mechanisms do primates employ to avoid predation?

• Vocalizations—vervet monkeys • Interspecific associations • Increased group size (3 D's)

What is a Proximate level of explanation? What is an Ultimate level of explanation?

***PROXIMATE (HOW?) • What is the immediate (mechanistic) cause of a behavior? • What is the developmental (ontogenetic) cause of a behavior? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **ULTIMATE (WHY?) • What is the historical (phylogenetic) cause of a behavior? • What is the functional (adaptive) cause of a behavior?

What are scramble competition and contest competition?

***Scramble competition: • When a resource is not effectively defensible by one or a few individuals • Individuals race against each other to consume/gather as much food before it is gone ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ***Contest competition: • When the resource being fought over can be monopolized by one or more individuals • Which individual or group of individuals can defend the tree and monopolize resources?

What are intrasexual and intrasexual selection

**Intrasexual selection: • Male competition • Dominant males gain access to females ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** Intersexual selection: • Female choice • Female selects most attractive male

What are mechanistic and ontogenetic causes of a behavior? What are phylogenetic and adaptive causes of a behavior?

**Mechanistic: What is immediate cause of behavior **Ontogenetic: Developmental cause of behavior **Phylogenetic: What is historical cause of behavior **Adaptive: What is functional cause of behavior

What are qualitative methods? Quantitative methods?

**Quantitative methods: • Numerical individual data collected using a standardized format and that can be compared across time and place and analyzed statistically ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **Qualitative methods: • Data collected using a non-standardized formats, providing additional detail and context about behavior of an organism.

What are major differences between primates in the suborder Strepsirrhini and primates in the suborder Haplorrhini?

**Strepsirrhini wet nose, smaller brain, tapedum lucidum, nocturnal, tooth comb, found in Africa and Asia (lemurs of madagascar, galagos and lorises) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **Haplorrhini (Humans!) dry nose and upper lip, divided into infraorder tarsiformes and simiiformes

What is chronometric dating? What are some examples of this?

- Method that provides a specific age of a fossil based either on analysis of a piece of the fossil itself or analysis of the rocks surrounding the fossil • Thermoluminescence • Dendrochronology • Paleomagnetism • Radiometric methods

What four factors determine how much food is required?

1) Basal metabolic rate 2) Active metabolism --> about twice the energy of basal metabolic rate (in medium-sized primates) 3) Growth rate 4) Reproductive effort

What traits define a mammal?

1) Homiothermy (warm blooded) 2) Heterdontism (different types of teeth) 3) Lactation (breastfeeding) 4) Internal gestation (retention of gets inside body) 5) Unique brain structures like neocortex 6) Hair (at some point in life)

When did mammals first evolve?

225 million years ago

What proportion of primates are threatened with extinction? And what are some of the factors that make primates so endangered today?

50% are threatened with extinction. Why? Habitat destruction, poaching, pet trade, disease.

What is Proconsul? Is it a monkey or an ape? How do we know?

A genus of early Miocene proconsulids from Africa, ancestral to catarrhines (own)

What is a Hominoidea/Hominoid?

Apes

What is the relationship between diet and home range?

Availability of food and seasonality of food.

How can you become a fossil and get found?

Die in an environment conducive to mineralization, buried quickly and deep to avoid being scavenged, rock containing fossil must surface, get noticed

What is sexual dimorphism?

Differences in physical characteristics between males and females of the same species.

What allowed mammals to adaptively radiate at the end of the Cretaceous period?

Dinosaurs extinct

What do behavioral ecologists mean when they refer to "tradeoffs"?

Energy costs & benefits

To what suborder of primates do humans belong? Infraorder? Parvorder? Superfamily? Family?

Family

What are the limiting factors for female and male reproductive success?

Female: Adequate resources Male: Access to females

Which sex provides the bulk of parental care across primate species?

Females

How does body size and gut and tooth morphology relate to dietary specialization?

Food specialization requires particular dental and digestive system adaptations

What are primate characteristics that distinguish them from other mammals?

Grasping hands and feet, nails instead of claws, forward-facing eyes, relatively large brain, generalized teeth

What types of primate social groups have the greatest sexual dimorphism in body and canine size? The least?

Greatest: One-male, multi-female. The least: Pair-bonds.

Arboreal versus terrestrial

Habitats where trees are present vs all over the world

What is the relationship between rank and male reproductive success in multi-male, multi-female primate groups?

Higher rank = more offspring

Why do we study primate behavior?

Homology & Analogy. 3 behavioral trends: primate-wide trends, hominoid-wide trends, unique hominin or human characteristics.

Why, in pair-bonded primates, do males groom females more often than females groom males?

Increased parental investment for males in pair-bonded

What is interspecific? What is intraspecific?

Interspecific: between species Intraspecific: Within species

What is cooperative breeding?

Males and other individuals in the group help raise the young

What is a relative dating? What are some examples of this?

Method that provides assessments of a fossil's age relative to other fossils. Examples: stratigraphy, faunal correlation, fluorine dating

What are Anthropoids?

Monkeys & Apes; AKA Simiiformes

What types of primates belong to the Hominoidea superfamily?

Orangutans, Humans, Pan, Gorilla

Which parvorder of primates has prehensile tails?

Platyrrhini

What are major differences between Platyrrhini (NWM) primates and Catarrhini (OWM) primates?

Platyrrhini: NWM New World Monkeys, 2133 dental formula, prehensile tails, quadrupeds, arboreal, live in S. and C. America Catarrhini: OWM & Apes (Humans!) Old World Monkeys, larger body, 2123 dental formula, diverse environments, live in Africa and Asia, divided into superfamily hominoids, and cercopithecoids

Why do we study primates: Reasoning by analogy

Primates provide models for how selection shapes adaptations in environments occupied by our ancestors. Primates are diverse.

How do scientists know how old fossils are?

Relative dating techniques, chronometric dating techniques

What types of social groups do primates live in?

Solitary, Polygyny: one male, Pair bonded, Polygyny: multimale, Plyandry

How do scientists reconstruct past global temperatures?

Taking the global temperature, cold climates, isotopes in sea animals, deep sea cores

Why might there be behavioral differences among closely related species?

Tied to different ecological conditions

Why might there be behavioral similarities among distantly related species?

Tied to similar ecological conditions

Where do primates mostly live today? How does this compare to the ancient range of primates?

Tropical areas of the Americas, Africa, Asia (mostly arboreal). Ancient range included North America & Europe.

What are the Adapids and Omomyids? Scientists think they are the ancestral forms of what types of primates?

Two types - Adapids (a-DAP-id) - Omomyids (oh-moh-MY-id)

What is a dental formula? How is it determined?

Written left to right (I-C-P-M) one quadrant of the mouth

Can sexual selection be stronger than natural selection?

YES

What is a Plesiadapiform? Is it a primate? Why/why not? Where in the world are they found, and during which epoch did they live (about how long ago did they live)?

Yes, primate with grasping hands and feet, nail on big toe. No, small brain, eyes on side of bed. Found in arizona, utah area. Lived in Creataceous 65 may.

What is a toothcomb?

a dental structure found in some mammals, comprising a group of front teeth arranged in a manner that facilitates grooming, similar to a hair comb.

In what two ways does continental drift affect the evolution of species?

changing environments- lead to adapdtations

What is heterodontism?

different types of teeth

Life history theory deals with how energy is allocated to what three biological processes?

growth, maintenance, reproduction

What is sexual selection?

individuals with certain inherited characteristics are more likely than other individuals to obtain mates

What is an activity budget, and what do primates mostly do all day?

it shows how much time an animal spends in various activities such as eating, resting, sleeping, and moving.

What are the Parapithecids? Which taxonomical group of primates do they most resemble?

maybe Anthropoid ancestors from the Oligocene, found in the Fayum, Egypt

About what percent of all primate species that have ever existed have been found?

only found 3% of all primate species

What is Nakalipithecus? Which taxonomical group of primates does it most resemble?

prehistoric great ape species that lived in today's Kenya region early in the Late Miocene. Very close to the last common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans (homininae)

What are some of the problems associated with fossils being rare (in terms of reconstructing phylogenies)?

small number can lead to incorrect phylogenetic relationships, overestimate origin of lineage, underestimate time of extinction, oversimplify relationship between fossil taxa, underestimate divergence times

What is ethology and who is Niko Tinbergen?

study of animal behavior, usually in natural conditions. Niko is a dutch biologist & ethologist who came up with 4 questions.

What is behavioral ecology?

the study of behavior from ecological and evolutionary perspectives

What is a primate mating system?

the ways animals find mates and care for offspring

Why do we study primates: Reasoning by homology

we ARE primates! First replied by Linnaeus & Darwin. Shared characteristics with ancestors.

In terms of defense against predators, what three benefits does living in a larger group provide? (The three D's)

• Detection—more eyes to see predator • Deterrence—mobbing behavior • Dilution—individual risk of death lower

What traits (physical, behavioral, developmemtal) are common to all primates?

• Grasping hands and feet • Hind-limb driven locomotion • Nails instead of claws • Tactile pads on ends of digits • Reduced olfaction; enhanced vision • Forward facing eyes encased in bone • Unspecialized molar teeth Increased dependence on learning and behavioral flexibility • Relatively large brain • Long gestation • Small litters (one or two) • Long juvenile period • Long lifespan

Interspecific competition versus intraspecific competition

• Interspecific competition over resources: competition between species (e.g. between access to seasonally ripe fruit) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ • Intraspecific competition over resources: competition between members of same species (e.g. over food resources, but also over other resources like territories, mates, etc).

What are some characteristic traits of a Hominoidea?

• Large bodies and relatively large brains • Frugivores • Tailless • Arboreally adapted

What additional four factors influence the reproductive success of females? Which of these four factors accounts for the greatest variation in female reproductive success?

• Longevity: **50-70% of variance** • Group size • Rank • Sociality

What is sperm competition? In what type of social groups is sperm competition the greatest?

• Males with larger sperm volume have greater chance of fathering offspring. Greatest competition: Multimale, multi female.

What types of socioecological pressures affect the behavior of organisms?

• Need to obtain food • Protection from predators • Habitat locomotion • Interspecific competition over resources (between species) • Intraspecific competition over resources (within species)

What is radiometric dating? Can carbon dating help us date fossil primates? Why/why not?

• Radiometric methods - Isotope ratios • Same element, but different number of neutrons • Can be radioactive ----> Decay at a constant rate -----> Half-life - Carbon dating • Half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years • Only dates up to 40,000 years

What hypotheses are there for the evolution of primate large brains?

• Social intelligence hypothesis • Expect a relatively larger brain in species that have more social complexity ***Ecological challenges hypothesis • Expect a relatively larger brain in species that engage in more extractive foraging or face more ecological challenges.

Why are some primates territorial why others are not?

• Territorial or not? Cost: Defend area Benefit: Protect limited resources