Primates
Primate (including Human)
Evolution
• The mammalian order Primates
includes lemurs, tarsiers, monkeys, and
apes
• Humans are members of the ape group
Derived Characters of Primates
• Most primates have hands and feet
adapted for grasping
• Other derived characters of primates:
– A large brain and short jaws
– Forward-looking eyes close together on the face,
providing depth perception
– Complex social behavior and parental care
– A fully opposable thumb (in monkeys and apes)
Fig. 34-37
Lemurs, lorises,
and pottos
Living Primates
Tarsiers
ANCESTRAL
PRIMATE
• There are three main groups of living
primates:
Old World monkeys
Gibbons
– Lemurs, lorises, and pottos
– Tarsiers
– Anthropoids (monkeys and apes)
Orangutans
Gorillas
Chimpanzees
and bonobos
Humans
Ida?
60
50
40
30
20
Time (millions of years ago)
10
0
Anthropoids
New World monkeys
Fig. 34-36
• The oldest known anthropoid fossils,
about 45 million years old, indicate that
tarsiers are more closely related to
anthropoids than to lemurs
Pottos
Lemurs
Loris
Tarsier
Fig. 34-37
Lemurs, lorises,
and pottos
Tarsiers
ANCESTRAL
PRIMATE
Old World monkeys
Gibbons
Orangutans
Gorillas
Chimpanzees
and bonobos
Humans
Ida?
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Time (millions of years ago)
Anthropoids
New World monkeys
• The first monkeys evolved in the Old
World (Africa and Asia)
• In the New World (South America),
monkeys first appeared roughly 25 million
years ago
• New World and Old World monkeys
underwent separate adaptive radiations
during their many millions of years of
separation
Fig. 34-38
Non-ape Primates
(a) New World monkey
(b) Old World monkey
New World monkeys
Mandrill Baboon
(Old World Monkey)
Non-ape Primates
Owl monkey
Tamarin
Pygmy Marmoset
Tarsier
Mouse Lemur
New World monkeys
Mandrill Baboon
(Old World Monkey)
• The other group of anthropoids consists
of primates informally called apes
• This group includes gibbons, orangutans,
gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and
humans
• Apes diverged from Old World monkeys
about 20–25 million years ago
Fig. 34-39
(a) Gibbon
Gibbon
(b) Orangutan
• Cranial Capacity
(c) Gorilla
(d) Chimpanzees
(e) Bonobos
~ 100 cc
Orangutan
• Cranial Capacity
Gorilla
• Cranial Capacity
275-500 cc
340-752 cc
Bonobo
• Cranial Capacity
300-400 cc
Concept 34.8: Humans are
mammals that have a large brain
and bipedal locomotion
• The species Homo sapiens is about
200,000 years old, which is very young,
considering that life has existed on
Earth for at least 3.5 billion years
Chimp
• Cranial Capacity
275-450 cc
Derived Characters of Humans
• A number of characters distinguish
humans from other apes:
– Upright posture and bipedal locomotion
– Larger brains
– Language capabilities and symbolic thought
– The manufacture and use of complex tools
– Shortened jaw
– Shorter digestive tract
Fig. 34-40
The Earliest Hominins
0
Paranthropus
robustus
Homo floresiensis ?
0.5
2.5
Kenyanthropus
platyops
Australopithecus
garhi
Australo3.0 pithecus
anamensis
3.5
4.5
5.0
Homo
erectus
Homo
rudolfensis
4.0
Ardipithecus
ramidus
Homo
habilis
Australopithecus
afarensis
Australopithecus sediba ?
5.5
6.0
7.0
Ardipithecus ramidus (Ardi) 4.4 mya
Australopithecus
africanus
1.5
2.0
6.5
• Hominins originated in Africa about 6–7
million years ago
• Early hominins had a small brain but
probably walked upright
Homo
Homo
neanderthalensis sapiens
Homo
?
ergaster
1.0
Millions of years ago
• The study of human origins is known as
paleoanthropology
• Hominins (formerly called hominids) are
more closely related to humans than to
chimpanzees
• Paleoanthropologists have discovered
fossils of about 20 species of extinct
hominins
Paranthropus
boisei
Orrorin tugenensis
Sahelanthropus
tchadensis
• Two common misconceptions about
early hominins:
– Thinking of them as chimpanzees
– Imagining human evolution as a ladder
leading directly to Homo sapiens
Australopiths
• Australopiths are a paraphyletic
assemblage of hominins living between 4
and 2 million years ago
• Some species walked fully erect
• “Robust” australopiths had sturdy skulls
and powerful jaws (a.k.a. Paranthropus)
• “Gracile” australopiths were more slender
and had lighter jaws
Fig. 34-41a
Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy)
• Cranial Capacity
400-550 cc
• 4 – 2.7 mya
(a) Australopithecus
afarensis skeleton
Fig. 34-41b
Fig. 34-41c
(c) An artist’s reconstruction of what A. afarensis
may have looked like
(b) The Laetoli footprints
Australopithecus africanus
• Cranial Capacity
Australopithecus africanus
• Cranial Capacity
450-550 cc
450-550 cc
• 3 – 2 mya
• 3 – 2 mya
Australopithecus boisei
• Cranial Capacity
400-530 cc
• 2.2 – 1 mya
Australopithecus sediba
(or genus Homo?)
• Cranial Capacity
420–450 cc
• 1.78 to 1.95 mya
Bipedalism
• Hominins began to walk long distances
on two legs about 1.9 million years ago
Tool Use
• The oldest evidence of tool use, cut
marks on animal bones, is 2.5 million
years old
Early Homo
• The earliest fossils placed in our genus
Homo are those of Homo habilis,
ranging in age from about 2.4 to 1.6
million years
• Stone tools have been found with H.
habilis, giving this species its name,
which means “handy man”
Homo habilis
• Cranial Capacity
500-775 cc
• 2.2 – 1.6 mya
Homo habilis
• Homo ergaster was the first fully bipedal,
large-brained hominid
• The species existed between 1.9 and 1.5
million years ago
• Homo ergaster shows a significant
decrease in sexual dimorphism (a size
difference between sexes) compared with
its ancestors
Homo ergaster
• Homo ergaster fossils were previously
assigned to Homo erectus; most
paleoanthropologists now recognize
these as separate species
• Cranial Capacity
~ 871 cc
• 1.9 – 1.5 mya
Fig. 34-42
• Homo erectus originated in Africa by 1.8
million years ago
• It was the first hominin to leave Africa
Homo erectus
• Cranial Capacity
700-1250 cc
• 2 mya – 4,000 ya
Homo erectus
• Cranial Capacity
700-1250 cc
• 2 mya – 4,000 ya
Homo floresiensis ? (“Hobbit”)
• Cranial Capacity
~380 cc
• 100,000 - 12,000 ya ?
Neanderthals
• Neanderthals, Homo neanderthalensis,
lived in Europe and the Near East from
200,000 to 28,000 years ago
• They were thick-boned with a larger
brain, they buried their dead, and they
made hunting tools
Homo neanderthalensis
• Cranial Capacity
1200-1700 cc
• 200,000 – 30,000 ya
Homo neanderthalensis
• Cranial Capacity
1200-1700 cc
• 200,000 – 30,000 ya
Homo sapiens
• Homo sapiens appeared in Africa by
195,000 years ago
• All living humans are descended from
these African ancestors
Fig. 34-44
Cro-Magnon (Homo sapiens)
• Cranial Capacity
1000-1700 cc
• 130,000 ya – present
Cro-Magnon (Homo sapiens)
• Cranial Capacity
1000-1700 cc
• 130,000 ya – present
• The oldest fossils of Homo sapiens
outside Africa date back about 115,000
years and are from the Middle East
• Humans first arrived in the New World
sometime before 15,000 years ago
• In 2004, 18,000 year old fossils were
found in Indonesia, and a new small
hominin was named: Homo floresiensis
Modern Homo sapiens
• Cranial Capacity
1000-1700 cc
• 130,000 ya – present
• Rapid expansion of our species may
have been preceded by changes to the
brain that made cognitive innovations
possible
– For example, the FOXP2 gene is essential for
human language, and underwent intense
natural selection during the last 200,000 years
• Homo sapiens were the first group to
show evidence of symbolic and
sophisticated thought
Fig. 34-45
Australopithecus sediba, Darwinius masillae
Ardipithecus ramidus
(Ida)
47 mya
(Ardi) 4.4 mya
&
Kenyanthropsis platyops
3.5 mya
Sahelanthropus tchadensis Skull
BH-029 6-7 mya
"Hominidenfamilie". Oberste Reihe, von links nach rechts: Kenyanthropus platyops,
Homo neanderthalensis; mittlere Reihe, von links nach rechts: Australopithecus
afarensis, Paranthropus boisei, Homo habilis; untere Reihe, von links nach rechts:
Australopithecus africanus, Homo erectus, Australopithecus anamensis, Homo
rudolfensis. Plastische wissenschaftliche Rekonstruktionen: Atelier WILDLIFE ART, W.
Schnaubelt & N. Kieser für Hessisches Landesmuseum DarmstadtFoto: Wolfgang
Fuhrmannek (Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt)
•
•
•
•
•
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1 HOMO HABILIS ~ NICKNAME: Handyman LIVED: 2.4 to 1.6 million years ago
HABITAT: Tropical Africa DIET: Omnivorous � nuts, seeds, tubers, fruits, some
meat
2 HOMO SAPIEN ~ NICKNAME: Human LIVED: 200,000 years ago to present
HABITAT: All DIET: Omnivorous - meat, vegetables, tubers, nuts, pizza, sushi
3 HOMO FLORESIENSIS ~ NICKNAME: Hobbit LIVED: 95,000 to 13,000 years ago
HABITAT: Flores, Indonesia (tropical) DIET: Omnivorous - meat included pygmy
stegodon, giant rat
4 HOMO ERECTUS ~ NICKNAME: Erectus LIVED: 1.8 million years to 100,000
years ago HABITAT: Tropical to temperate - Africa, Asia, Europe DIET: Omnivorous meat, tubers, fruits, nuts
5 PARANTHROPUS BOISEI ~ NICKNAME: Nutcracker man LIVED: 2.3 to 1.4
million years ago HABITAT: Tropical Africa DIET: Omnivorous - nuts, seeds, leaves,
tubers, fruits, maybe some meat
6 HOMO HEIDELBERGENSIS ~ NICKNAME: Goliath LIVED: 700,000 to 300,000
years ago HABITAT: Temperate and tropical, Africa and Europe DIET: Omnivorous meat, vegetables, tubers, nuts
7 HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS ~ NICKNAME: Neanderthal LIVED: 250,000 to
30,000 years ago HABITAT: Europe and Western Asia DIET: Relied heavily on meat,
such as bison, deer and musk ox