I have always been curious about the different types of monkeys. I always loved the zoo when I was little and was always so intrigued by them and how different they all were but yet offered similar similarities. Therefore, I was shocked by the videos and links this week. I learned a lot about the different types of non-human primates and the similarities with them and us humans. I always knew humans were the closest similar living thing to the monkeys. I know there are so many different kinds, and each are more similar to us humans. For example, when tails were brought up with humans and primates. Not all primates have a tail, but apes do. I think it is crazy how we can be so close, but yet there is so many branches of being a primate but yet, we all have prehensile digits. Also, we share color vision which I was unaware. Such as how our color vision is to literally see colors and make everything livelier, their color vision helps them in the trees to detect different objects. We have share so many common features, but yet are used for different things and I think that is so crazy. It just goes to show how traits are evolved and passed down over evolution which makes the next “generations” aware of how to use these certain features while stemming from learned behavior. Compared to humans as mentioned in lecture we start off with a “blank slate” so we can learn different behaviors. This goes back to what we learned last week regarding the different environments an induvial grows up, determines how that induvial acts.  

Another thing surprised me this week how every different type of primate expressed differently towards different values. Going off this, humans are hominoids along with orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees. But yet, these species all do things different. Gorillas live in uni-male groups, but yet are made up of mostly leaves so they don’t have to move. Verses orangutans who move around a lot in search of food while lastly chimpanzees. I found out this week that there are two different types of chimps which I wasn’t aware, nor was I aware how different they were. I was surprised to see how they were in separate environments, made them very different. Hearing about their social structure was interesting, such as their battles over females. Bonobos are very laid back and complete opposite. It is crazy how they are the same species, but yet grew up different so those traits were passed down and yet changed them dramatically. 

I think by studying non-human primates we can learn a lot about our own biology, behavior and culture. Just because these primates derived from a species, over time formed different features depending on where they ended up. Especially studying chimps, since that is the closest related to us. Since there are two different chimps because they got separated and grew up in two different environments made them different. We can translate to humans by two different people, races, etc growing up in different environments and then seeing the outcome. How bonobos are more peaceful and never kill, vs normal chimps kill babies to make that female start ovulating again. We obviously have different behaviors and ways of doing stuff such as kids, eating, dating, but being so closely related to humans they do the same things just in a different way. This goes to show species form different species and evolution plays a huge role in why non-human primates are so similar to us.