This week lesson about primates, was very interesting because a lot of this information was new to me. While in middle and high school we only touched on the topic of evolution and primates/ non primates several times, not enough for me to retain the information. Through the various lessons throughout this course, I am now well aware about genetics with different primates and how we have evolved away from one another. I have begun to develop an interest on the topic of evolution and also with this week’s lesson of “non-human Primates.” Chimps, apes and monkeys being the key focus this week really excites me because monkeys are my favorite animal. I’ve noticed many similarities between my actions and chimps. I feel this is important to note during this week’s lesson.
It was intriguing to discover that anthropologist’s section off all primates into six different categories essentially creating a hierarchy. These six branches are called “super families’” and from that scientists split the six into two creating categories called “grades.” These two separate groups of the six which indicates broad adaptation shared by the primates in the group. Also, hominoids, cercopithecoids and ceboids all share a common ancestor that lived 55 million years ago. I feel like this information is very critical in knowing how non-human primates help provide information about human primate’s evolution. For example: Anthropoids (one of the two grades) includes the primates of humans, monkeys and apes. We all have much in common, for example: Mammary glands, placenta births, similar brain sizes and heterodonts. In my opinion this helps humans better understand our history of evolution. With the many similarities we have with apes and monkeys it would be evident that we would have evolved from apes and monkeys. Also, more than any other mammals’ humans and apes are constantly being compared.
Particularly I really liked the video “The new Chimpanzees.” The video explained greatly the study of chimps and humans and our common ancestor that he shared. The video in my opinion went hand to hand within the article “Primate classification and phylogeny.” Both the article and video explained how humans at one point lived in the jungle just like chimps. The humans moved on to the planes leaving the forest to the chimpanzees, but before then humans developed the ability to see color. This essentially was the result of an evolutionary adaption, making life in the jungle easier. This was really interesting to learn about. I never thought about how we got to see color but shockingly this all makes sense.
After studying the lesson this week, I discovered many things about “non-human primates” and primates. Things I’ve never heard before which was very shocking to hear. I feel like humans can better understand our biology by studying our non-human counterparts. Studying the way animals adapt, care for their babies, walk, and use objects are key points to notice when comparing the behavior of non-human primates and human primates. Noticing this behavior could help us understand our biology a little better, with making the assumption that we as humans may have evolved from chimps.
After reading your post, I can relate that I definitely learned about primates multiple times in middle and high school but I never really remembered any of the information I learned about them. I did think it was cool tho to be learning some things and would remember certain details that I had heard before. When I read the information about how anthropologist’s section off all primates into six different categories to create a hierarchy I didn’t quite realize what they were doing until you described it. I find it very intriguing how they are split into “super families” and “grades” which is so similar to our lives as humans. That just shows how we have another connection between ourselves and other primates like chimps and apes.