What Are Two Characteristics That Primates Share That No Other Animals Have?

Primate:

A primate is a member of the mammalian guild Primates, which comprises two suborders: the prosimians (lemurs, lorises, and tarsiers) and the anthropoids (monkeys, apes, and human being). According to fossil records, primates originated in the Belatedly Cretaceous (97.five to 66.4 million years ago) as wood-dwelling house creatures. Bear witness that modern man is a descendant of these early primates was commencement provided past Charles Darwin in his Origin of Species, published in 1859.

The anatomical and behavioral features that distinguish primates from members of other mammalian orders include a lack of strong specialization in structure; prehensile hands and feet, unremarkably with opposable thumbs and neat toes; flattened nails instead of claws on the digits; astute vision with some degree of binocular vision; relatively large encephalon exhibiting a degree of cortical folding; and prolonged postnatal dependency. No primate exhibits all these features, and indeed the diverseness of primate forms has produced disagreement equally to their proper classification.

Taxonomically the primate social club can exist bundled in 11 families: The prosimians include the lemurs (Lemuridae), the aye-aye (a single species comprising the Daubentoniidae), galagos and lorises (Lorisidae), tarsiers (Tarsiidae), and a little-known group of arboreal creatures including the avahi, sifaka, and indri (Indriidae). The anthropoids include marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae), South American monkeys other than marmosets (Cebidae), African and Asian monkeys (Cercopithecidae), siamangs and gibbons (Hylobatidae, the lesser apes), orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees (Pongidae, the keen apes), and homo and his straight ancestors (Hominidae). The tree shrews (Tupaiidae) are included amongst the prosimians by some authorities merely past others among the insectivores.

A wide range of size, weight, and habitat is found amid members of the primate lodge. The smallest primates are weighed in tens of grams, while the gorilla typically weighs 140 to 180 kg (300 to 400 pounds). Nonhuman primates are found throughout the tropical areas of India, Africa, Asia, and South America. A few species also alive in temperate latitudes, merely lack of winter food supply limits their adaptability to these climates.

The combination of an unspecialized physical construction and highly specialized behaviour has made the primates a very successful lodge. An unspecialized construction helps primates flourish in changing environments, while their well-developed brains allow them to adapt their behaviour to arrange their specific needs. Most primates have binocular vision and forward-facing eyes, two characteristics that are necessary for depth perception. Although their vision is highly developed, primates have shortened muzzles and a correspondingly reduced sense of olfactory property. These modifications are a reflection of the predominantly arboreal life that has long characterized primates. Except for two species, all primates have five digits on each hand and foot. All take prehensile (grasping) hands, and all except human take prehensile feet. Although the opposable (freely moving) thumb is present in most primates, information technology is particularly developed in man, making him capable of delicate manipulation.

One of the striking features of the primate guild, wherein it differs from other mammalian orders, is that its existing members fall into a graded series, or scale of organization, which suggests an actual evolutionary trend leading from the most primitive (tree shrews) to the most advanced (humans).

A tendency in primate evolution has been toward a more elaborate brain. In college primates the neocortex functions to receive, clarify, and synthesize information from the senses. The encephalon of anthropoids is larger, relative to body weight, than that of prosimians and is characterized by a complicated blueprint of folds and fissures on the surface. Another evolutionary trend in primates involves the development of offspring both before and after birth. Gestation periods are relatively long, allowing for the development of the more than complex brain. The more than sophisticated species likewise showroom longer babe and juvenile stages, which are probably related to the time required for their more advanced mental evolution and their integration into complex social systems. The reproductive wheel of copulation, gestation, birth, and lactation occupies the higher female person primates for a year or more. The female does not normally come into estrus again until the offspring of the previous pregnancy is weaned. Primate infants are generally born fully furred and with their eyes open. Except in the example of man, chimpanzee, and gorilla, the newborns are able to cling to the mother's fur and need no support. Physical dependency ends when the young are weaned, but it is followed by an extended flow of psychological maternal dependency lasting from 2 1/2 years in lemurs to 14 years or and so in homo.

Primates exhibit four different forms of locomotion: vertical clinging and leaping; quadrupedalism, which involves use of both the forelimbs and the hind limbs in walking, climbing, and swinging; brachiation, in which the primary form of move is swinging by the forelimbs; and bipedalism, the upright striding of human. All primates are able to sit down upright, many can stand upright, and some can even walk upright for brusk periods, just only man is capable of the upright striding gait.

Primates are omnivorous, and their teeth are multipurpose, allowing them to cut, tear, and grind. Although nonhuman primates will occasionally eat the mankind of other mammals, their nutrition consists primarily of leaves, fruit, bawl, nuts and other vegetable affair, birds, eggs, rodents, insects, and frogs.

For centuries man has recognized the superior intelligence of monkeys and has valued them as pets. Considering the biology of all primates is very similar, nonhuman species have become increasingly of import to man in medical enquiry and infinite science. More than a quarter of a million wild monkeys are used in laboratories every year. Although most primates are still plentiful in the wild, certain species, including the orangutan and gorilla, are in danger of extinction from hunting, poaching, or loss of habitat.

Excerpt from the Encyclopedia Britannica without permission.

Source: http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/primate.html

Posted by: hollingsworthageres.blogspot.com

Share this post