4/3 Biological Anthropology - Primate characteristicso Limbs and locomotion- The Arboreal Theoryo Suggests that all these characteristics were an adaptation to life in treeso Limbs and locomotiono Grasping and climbingo Brain and senseo Intelligence and visual activityo Primates orginate when a shift to arboreal life occurred 65 myao Rise of angiospermso Problems w/ this theoryo Squirrels have claws, lateral orbit, no grasping ability, yet successful intrees- Visual Predation Theory Animals that share primate traitso Climbing marsupials like tree kangaroos in treeso Grasping and climbing o Visually directed hunting activities using eyes to track prey, hands to grab and feet to grasp- Behavioral ecologyo Animal behavior is the result of evolution by natural selectiono Behavior is genetically influenced or based but influenced by ecological factorso Individuals act to maximize their own fitness rather than for the good of the species or the groupo Altruism-high cost to youo Spite-high cost to you just to hurt anothero Altruistic behaviors the family receives a lot of benefitso Behavioral ecology suggests a cost benefits analysis of animals behavioro How does the behavior affect the individuals fitnesso Aspects of ecology affecting behavior 1) distribution of food 2) activity patters 3) ranging behavior 4) predationo most live in tropicso variation in habitatso desert to tropicso each environment offers something different to the primates- variation in environmental zones- primates species occupy different environmental zones w/in a single forest (microenvironments)- evolution of living primates has take place in conjunction w/ other primate and nonprimate members of a complex environmento plants-defending leaveso defending immature fruito pollinatorso seed dispersal- competitors- competition for food- predators- influence activity patterns, social organization, sleeping sites, vocalizations- land use- primates spend days, years and lives in a small patch of foresto best pathways for movingo best water sourceso safe sleeping places- day range- distance an individual or group moves in a single day- home range-total area of land used- territories- area where there is no overlap and adjacent groups actively defend the boundaries of their home range- activity patters- majority are diurnal(primates)- majority of prosimians are nocturnal- environment o diet and patter of food distribution must get food so as to maintain themselves (somatic effort) andreproduce(reproductive effort) somatic-time and energy- devoted to self in the form of bodily maintenance- reproductive effort-time and energy devoted to achieving genetic representation in the next generation, mating effort and parental effort- nutritional requirements vary across species, age, sex and reproductive state- parent offspring conflict-mother pushes off baby to initiate back in to reproductive effort- the more symmetry you have, are signals to potential mates that you have good genes- at the species level-body size, limb structure, jaws, teeth and gastro intestinal tract are all morphological characters related to a specific ecological zone- body size- small animals can gather fruit from the end of their terminal branches and they are more agile in capturing small prey (insects)- reproductive state-lactating females require more protein and minerals than nonlactating females or similar sized animals- Uganda-Mangabeys, strong jaws and teeth allow them to open tough fruits that are unavailable to other monkeys- Composition of the dieto Majority of species eat some combo of fruits, leaves, flowers, roots, bark, seeds, herbso 3 broad categorieso 1) faunivores-feed mostly on animalso 2)frugivores- feed mostly on fruito 3) folivores- feed mostly on leaveso 4) omnivores- eat anything- patters of food distribution o primates foods have patchy distributiono size of patcheso density of items w/in a patcho separation of patches in space and timeo predators need avoidedo reproduction pursuedo weather coped witho competitors dealt witho all these demands place conflicting pressures on time allocationo organisms are limited in the amount of time they can devote to alternate activitieso time devoted to one activity is usually not available to devote to another activity at the same timeo we can study how features of the social and or physical environment affect activity- food and femaleso demands on locationo manufacturing milk is energetically costlyo trade off between somatic effort and reproductive efforto lactating females divert energy from own maintenance into milk productiono how do females compensate?o Eat more foodo Feed on foods w/ higher energy content- Foragingo Searchingo Handlingo Food consumption and digestiono Can occupy more than 50% of primates daytime activity- Primate mating systemso Play a critical role in our understanding of primate specieso Patterns of courtship, mate choice and parental careo Orangs(solitary)- females reside in separate home range w/ offspring ;males are in separate rangeso Gibbons(monogamy)-one male and one female form pair bondo Marmosets(Polyandry)- 1 female w/ several maleso Polygyny-1 males w/ multiple femaleso Polygyny-several males and femaleso Chimps-multi males, multi femaleo Male reproductive success can have a high variance, where as females often have a low variance reproductive successo In monogamous species both males and females presumably care for offspringo Comparison of sexually dimorphic anatomical features seen in apes that influence o Male/male and female/female competitiono Body sizeo Genetalia