Man became intelligent and created society through the labor. This event, given man’s biological belonging to the animal world, underscores the enormity of the change. However, one can merely comprehend the origin of man if one considers history from the beginning of the evolution of the order of primates. The first mammals from the then-existing reptiles arose in the Mesozoic Era at the end of the Triassic period. From primitive mammals, more advanced placental mammals as primates later developed. Nowadays, several prominent groups of primates can be distinguished: the prosimians, anthropoids, platyrrhines, catarrhines, and hominoids.
According to primatology which means the study of primates, all primate species maintain transformations for ascending trees since they are descended from tree dwellers. This dendrological lineage of primates has resulted in arms and legs adjusted for brachiation or climbing and swaying (Welker 145). These adaptions contain but are not restricted to a rotating shoulder joint, a big toe that permits grasping limbs, and stereoscopic vision. Moreover, primate diets have generally been divided into three main categories – fruit, leaves, and fauna.
Other primate characteristics are a brain, claws modified into flattened nails, usually only one offspring per pregnancy, and a tendency to keep the body upright. Locomotion is the study of signals and poses in arboreal and terrestrial habitats (Welker 25). Primates are masters of living in the trees due to their grasping hands and feet. Most primates spend their lives in complex, tightly woven societies and need to communicate frequently with each other. Their communication consists of smells, sounds, visual messages, and touching. They are characterized by self-awareness which means the ability to think, concentrate and be accountable for actions.
The most common social organization pattern among semi-terrestrial primates is the multimale-multifemale group. It means that there are no stable heterosexual bonds; males and females have several different mates. Primates are divided primarily into two groups: prosimians and anthropoids (Lacy 24). Prosimians lead nocturnal lifestyles (unlike diurnal anthropoids) and have smaller brains than anthropoids. Anthropoid apes evolved from prosimians during the Oligocene epoch.
Old World monkeys are called Catarrhini because of their narrow noses (Welker 131). When the platyrrhines appeared, their habitat, where they originated, and the continents of South America and Africa diverged in different directions. Due to this reproductive isolation, New World and Old World monkeys underwent distinct adaptive radiations over millions of years (Lacy 24). All New World monkeys are dendroids, while Old World monkeys include dendroids and terrestrial species.
The most straightforward way to differentiate between a monkey and an ape is to see if it has a tail. Almost all monkeys have tails, while apes do not. Primates tend to be larger than apes and do not have them (Welker 145). All apes can move around in trees, although many species spend most of their time on the ground. Primates are more intelligent than monkeys and have larger brains than their body size.
The family Hominidae of the order Primates includes hominoids and great apes. The term hominin refers to species that evolved after this division of the primate lineage, thus denoting species that are more closely related to humans than chimpanzees (Lacy 24). Hominins were predominantly bipedal and included those groups that probably gave rise to our species – Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus – and those non-ancestral groups that may be considered relatives of modern humans, such as Neanderthals.
Therefore, primates are among the most highly organized mammals. They have a well-developed nervous system and a reasonably large brain. Primates have binocular vision, while monkeys and humans have color vision. Most primates, both past, and present, are arboreal forms. They lived among trees, fed mainly on their fruits, and only a few later shifted to a terrestrial lifestyle. At the same time, it is their place in the process of evolution that cannot be overestimated, which makes it necessary to study primates.
Works Cited
Welker, Barbara. The History of our Tribe: Hominini. Open Suny Textbooks, 2017.
Lacy, Sarah A. Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology. Open Suny Textbooks, 2021.