Non-human primates are a key essential factor that helps to better understand human evolution. After reading the article by John Hawks, I am better able to understand our correlation to New world Monkeys and Old world monkeys. Because we are considered Hominoidea, there is a huge relation between us, and non-human primates. Of course this is something we have all probably heard in the past, however, definitely not this much in depth. This past weeks lectures were inevitably helpful in making me understand the concept of not just how, we as humans, are related to non-human primates, but also to understand the mating process and social structure as well. For example, I enjoyed learning about how non-human primates’ function the same way we do as humans. The idea of sexual dimorphism is enormously similar to how humans function. Not only are males usually bigger than women, but also non-human primates function basically the same way both genders function. For example, I found it very interesting when learning about monogamy and how females gorilla’s look for comfort in their partners to be able to take care of their offspring. This is definitely super familiar and something humans are genetically created to crave as well. It is implemented in our DNA and how we act. We can also see an evolutionary affect in the reproduction system. Human females are only able to conceive for a certain period of time, whereas males are endless producers. The idea of socioecology within the non-human primates opens up a whole variety of similarities to the way our social structure functions as well. This entire concept is what surprised me the most. All primates have their own type of way of living whether it is in groups or alone. Humans also prefer to have their social groups as well. It is known that humans, just like gorillas, tend to stay in packs. The more people we have in our environment, the more safer we feel and able to prosper in society.

The article Our true dawn: Pinning down human origins not only talks about human evolution, but also talks about the important factors such as DNA, lineage, and most importantly, the question of when humans and chimps separated. As I have mentioned before, of course we know that our lineage goes back to a common ancestors with chimpanzees, but as the article states, most do not know how far back that is. By keeping up with studying social structure, food resources, and DNA, we can become more familiar with the relationship between ceboidea, cercopithecoidea, and homioidea. What humans are most interested in studying is, of course, the past generations of humans. If we can finally come to a point where we fully grasp the concept of non-human primates, and how this made it possible for humans to evolve. DNA and selection are the key to making sense of the separation between chimpanzees and humans, along with non-humans apes. The similarities are inevitable, and are imbedded into our DNA.