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The evolution of primate locomotion There are many points of view connected to the appearance of men on this planet. However, the majority of scientists state that men have developed though the evolution of primate. According to John Stewarts work The evolution of primates, pp 16 - 24, primates possess well advanced five-fingered, the finiteness adapted to a climbing on branches in the trees. Full division of beam and elbow bones provides mobility and a variety of movements of forward finiteness. The big finger is mobile and at many kinds can be opposed other fingers. Trailer phalanxes of fingers are supplied with nails, at those forms which possess nails or have a claw on separate fingers, the big finger always bears a flat nail.
At movement by the ground primates lean on the entire stop. The reduction of sense of smell and amplified development of sight and hearing are connected to a wood life. They have only 3 - 4 nose bowls. Eyes are directed forward, and eye-sockets are separated from a temporal hole by a ring (lemurs) or a bone partition.
On a muzzle of the lowest primates there are 4 - 5 groups of sense hair. Their skin combs, as well as humans are developed on the hands and feet's surfaces. Active life and different functions of forward finitenesses have caused at primates strong development of a brain, and in this connection increase in volume of a cranium and accordingly reduction of an cranium obverse department. Primates basically eat the mixed food with prevalence of vegetative. In connection with the mixed feed their stomach is very plain. They have four types of teeth- cutters, canines, small and big radical, and full change of teeth - dairy and constant takes place.
Significant variations are marked at a size of a body of primates - from small mouse lemurs up to gorillas by growth of 180 sm, and higher. (John Stewart work The evolution of primates, pp 25 - 48). At many kinds the hair and leather are brightly painted, eyes are brown or yellow. A tail is usually long but sometimes it can be shot. They can live on the ground or in the trees. A way of life of primates is day time, gregarious, less often pair or single; they live mainly in tropical and subtropical woods of Africa, Asia and America, can be met in high-mountainous... (John Stewart work The evolution of primates, p 50). Mary G Smith in The primates and evolution of their movements, states that primate underwent great evolution and obtained various features during the period of millions of years.
The primates evolution is closely connected to the natural conditions. Flora and fauna have been changing anonymously and the most important phases in primate evolution happened because of the changes in the continental drift such as: deforestation, natural disasters and warming. Due to such phenomenon primates became less arboreal and more terrestrial. (Smith, Mary G. The primates and evolution of their movements, pp. 234 - 235).
During the long period of millions of years our planet underwent great number of changes. The inhabitants of the planet also had to change in order to adjust to these changes. In struggle with natural selection and terrestrial life primates had to change their physical appearance. They acquired upright locomotion, underwent many changes in their body configuration, increased in size and lose the hair. (Smith, Mary G. The primates and evolution of their movements, pp. 234 - 238). According to Clive Wisdroff The adaptation of primates to the terrestrial life, scientists define three eras connected with the vertebrate evolution: the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic.
The Cenozoic is the most recent and it is associated with the mammalian adaptive radiation. Scientists defined seven epochs in the Cenozoic era: such as Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene (Wisdroff, Clive The adaptation of primates to the terrestrial life pp. 12 - 15). The group of primates that lived in Paleocene (65 m. y. a. ) was called the Lemuroids. The Ruffed Lemur appeared in the tropical rainforests of Madagascar.
These primates ate leaves fruits and flowers. They can be recognized due to the elongated snout with a small cover on eyes. As they are big in size, they are adapted to the ground. Their big size makes them very slow and unable to escape form other wild animals. Their teeth have gap and their screams are very loud.
There strange faces and wet noses make them look less like humans. The Coquerels Sifaka are also the primate of the Paleocene era. They appeared in the forests of Northwest Madagascar. They also eat leaves, flowers and fruits and are considered to be the second largest lemurs. They cant jump in the trees in an upright position due to very long legs. Garage is the third type of primate of this era...
They are very small with big eyes, longs tails and large legs. The size of their brain is average and they catch insects at night due to their perfect vision and hearing. Their long limbs allow them to jump from tree to tree. They mark their territory with there smelly footprints. The Crowned Lemur, which lives in Madagascar, is also a primate of this era.
These primates also eat fruits, flowers and leaves. They spend most of the time in the trees and can hunt during the day and night. They have something like caps on their hats. Females can be recognised by the lighter cap. (Wisdroff, Clive The adaptation of primates to the terrestrial life, London 2000. pp 60 - 62). Eocene is the next epoch is (53 m.
y. a. ). This era brought to life a group of primates called tarsiers. They appeared in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. They use very special method of hunting: jump onto preys from the trees. They are considered to be prosimians and are related to lorises and lemurs due to the size, big years and eyes, claws.
Their toes and fingers are very long and their fingertips are made of very strange material like a rubbery and sticky membrane. Tarsiers have a combination of prosimians and anthropoids from. The Tamarins are the next and one of the last group of primate that lived in the Eocene era. They are considered to be the most primitive primate. They appeared in the forests of Peru, Bolivia, and northwest Brazil. Tamarins are very small, their weighs are only 2. 5 oz to 2. 2 lbs.
They also eat fruits, but also tree gum have claws, not nails, often have twins-children. Their locomotion is quadrupedal, they are able, to climb the trees due to their claws, they always move leaping and clinging. Tamarins are very family primates; their males even take care of their children, that is rare phenomena. Wisdroff, Clive The adaptation of primates to the terrestrial life, London 2000. pp 72 - 100). The next era is the Oligocene (35 m.
y. a. ). This era is characterized by many kinds of primate occurred. The Spider monkey is a very interesting primate. They appeared in rain forest and mountain forest of Central and North America. They eat fruits, leaves and hunt insects.
The Spider monkeys are called Spider for their very long legs and arms, which allow them to move in the trees very quickly, though they have no first finger. Some scientists even consider this peculiarity to be the advantage in terms of moving. They use their tail and a third leg in every move that makes their moving faster and perfect. These monkeys usually hung headfirst, using their tail like real spiders. (Wisdroff, Clive The adaptation of primates to the terrestrial life, London 2000. pp 102 - 105). The Tufted Capuchin monkey is the next unique child of the given epoch.
They originated from the tropical forests of Central and South Africa. They eat fruit, nuts and hunt insects. These are very active and clever monkeys. They have an opposable thumb so that they can move around and touch other fingers like men. They can quickly imitate and learn new moves.
They usually use twigs to look for insects in the holes of the trees. The next type is the Colobus. These monkeys originated from the tropical forests of Central and West Africa. They eat mostly leaves; due to this habit they obtained a leaf-digesting organ that is located in the same place as a human appendix.
In the early childhood they are white, but then get darker coloration. They spend most of the time in treetops. Their locomotion is quadrupedal and they are considered to be one of the most interesting leapers. (Smith, Mary G. The primates and evolution of their movements pp. 300 - 303) The last three epochs the Miocene (25 m. y. a. ), Pliocene (5 m.
y. a. ) and Pleistocene (1. 8 m. y. a. ) are characterized by the first appearance of modern primates and man. Gorillas appeared in the Miocene era. These primate originated in the tropical forests of West Africa.
They eat mostly fruits, vegetation and insects like termites and ants. Their size if the largest: the male weighs up to 475 pounds and the female weighs up to 250 pounds. Their leaders are called the silver backs, because they have white hair on their back. Due to the fact that by this time primate became more erect, gorillas can move on two legs, but usually they use all four. They are fully adapted to the terrestrial life. They are able to hold the things with all the fingers and seem to be very similar to humans.
Having the false reputation of dangerous killers, Gorillas are really quiet animals and absolutely harmless. Wisdroff, Clive The adaptation of primates to the terrestrial life, London 2000. pp 130 - 134). The Orangutan appeared in the tropical forests of Borneo and Sumatra.
In contrast to other primates, which like to live in groups, Orangutans like to be along. They eat bark, fruit, leaves, eggs. Orangutans are knuckle-walkers and usually make to gestures towards each other by taking care of each other. The have long hair, transparent skin and their feet have the same size and shape as their hands. Notwithstanding that they have large size, they like to spend the time in the trees, where they build nests like birds. They dont like to use one nest longer than for one night.
Like gorillas, they are very shy and like to be along, dont like noise. The next kind is chimpanzees, who are the most intelligent of all the primates. According to their DNA, that is 99 % identical to humans, they are considered to be the closest relative of man. They live in equatorial Africa. They are very similar to gorillas. Their eyes, nose and ears are very much alike humans.
They have an ability to see colour like humans and they are very sociable. Hands and feet consist of five fingers and toe. They can take things with all the five fingers and carry them. They can hang in the trees with the feet. They use small sticks to look for food inside the trees.
They have strong Jaw and teeth that allow them to chew coarse food. Chimpanzees express their feeling by means of the sounds they make and their gestures and body movements, they can make 34 or more different calls: screams of surprises and squeaks of nervousness. Their large canine teeth can intimidate rivals, and do real damage during fights. Chimpanzees hug when they are excited or need reassurance. They kiss to comfort or to show respect.
Jane Goodall said that let us hope that out understanding of the chimpanzees will lead also to a better understanding of the nature of other non-human animals, as a new attitude towards other species with which we share this planet. The Chimpanzees seldom have fleas or any other kind of bugs. They are just grooming each other, picking our bits of dirt and dried skin. I also noticed that when there is a pink swelling on female chimpanzees (it is only on female) it tells the males that she is ready to mate.
The swelling is sensitive, but does not hurt. It may last for two weeks. Wisdroff, Clive The adaptation of primates to the terrestrial life, London 2000. pp 140 - 156). We have investigated the primates, changing in their behaviour, locomotion, habits, appearance. Now it is clear that primates underwent a lot of changes until a man appeared at the earth during the final to epochs of the Cenozoic- the Pliocene and the Pleistocene.
Humans appeared about 5 m. y. a... South Africa is the place where the first discoveries of it were made. Scientists states that Man originated from the primates so they attracted a lot of attention of the investigators.
We have seen the evolution that the primates underwent over a period of 63 million years or even more. All this changes were necessary for primates to adapt to the nature around them. These changes include the modification and then disappearance of the tail. As time passed and the forests became less dense the primates became more adapted to terrestrial life. Bibliography: Stewart, John The evolution of primates, New York 2000. Smith, Mary G.
The primates and evolution of their movements, New York 2001 Wisdroff, Clive The adaptation of primates to the terrestrial life, London 2000.
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Research essay sample on The Evolution Of Primate Locomotion
