ANTH 110: Primate Evolution
49 Cards in this Set
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Estimated age of the earth
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4.6 billion years old
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Largest to smallest time periods
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Era, period, epoch
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Paleozoic Era (570 mya)
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Invertebrates, fish, amphibians, first reptiles
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Cenozoic era (65 mya - present)
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Age of mammals, era we are in now
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Absolute dating
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When we can put a number to something
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Radioactivity
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How we get an absolute date
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Radioactive decay
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Moving from a less stable state to a more stable state; is spontaneous and irreversible. Can go one element to another or can change amounts of neurons in the same element
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Half-life
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the time required for one-half of the radioactive (parent) isotope/element in a sample to decay to radiogenic (daughter) isotopes/elements.
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Elements and half-lives
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Different elements have different half-lives
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Elements surround each other
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Different things we want to date are surrounded by different elements
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potassium-argon and argon-argon dating
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Used to date the time a volcanic rock was molten. A small proportion of Potassium gets trapped in the rock as K-40. Over time K-40 changes into Ar-40
measure of ratio K40 to Ar40 determines age
half life = 1.3 billion years = date oldest rocks
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Core of Earth
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Doesn't move
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Mantle and crust of Earth
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Move all the time. Crust floats on mantle; movement of the mantle moves the crust. This movement creates events we feel on earth (earthquakes)
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Pangaea
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Super continent
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Breakup Of Pangaea - stage one
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- 180 MYA - Pangaea split into two supercontinents
- Laurasia - NA, Asia, Europe
- Gondwana - SA, Africa, Australia, Antarctica
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Pangaea breakup - stage 2
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150 mya - horizontal pulling apart, start to see present day continents
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Pangaea breakup - stage 3
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65 mya – continuation of phase two
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Understanding plate tectonics
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·helps us understand why primates/fossils are where where they are. Connected plates allow primates to travel. Shifting of plates affects climate
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Paleocene epoch
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65 mya, earth was a subtropical savanna, was uniformly warm (all green, some trees)
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plesiadapiformes
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"archaic primates" or Primate-like mammals
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Plesiadapiformes fossils
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Found in North America, Europe, Asia, and possibly Africa. We don't have complete body fossils, but the fossils we do have make them seem "successful"
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Plesiadapiformes characteristics
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Rodent-like, no post-orbital bar, relatively small brain, large incisors, long snouts, claws
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Diastema
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A gap between front teeth and back teeth, found in Plesiadapiformes
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Plesiadapiformes had 3 families
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Purgatorius, Plrsiadapidae (had claws, not nails), and Carpolesidae (had nails and possibly an opposable digit)
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Eocene Epoch
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55-34 mya, Wet, tropical land, No connection between South America and North America, North America connected to Europe
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Eupimates
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"True primates," Eocene epoch
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Euprimates characteristics
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small snout, eyes facing almost forward, no diastema, nails (not claws), opposability, and larger brains
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Adapoids and Omomyoids
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Groups of euprimates
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Adapoid features
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Very similar to living strepsirhines, larger than omomyoids, ate leaves
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Cantius
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Earliest adapoid
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Adapis
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A type of adapoid, like a lemur, lived in Europe
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Notharctus
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A type of adapoid, like a lemur, lived in North America
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Omoyoid features
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Like living tarsiers, very small, ate insects (nocturnal)
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Teilhardina
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Earliest known North American primate ( an Omomyoid)
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Oligocene epoch
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35-25 mya, movement of the continents led to drastic worldwide cooling
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Early Anthropoids geological location
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Found in Africa, Middle East, and Asia
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Fayum Depression
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in Egypt – great place to find fossils (dry, open desert). Where · Aegyptopihecus was found (most famous find)
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Aegyptopihecus
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A type of apidium found in the Fayum depression
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Apidium
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Early Oligocene anthropoid. 2-1-2-3 dental formula, size of a squirrel
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Branisella
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oldest new world monkey fossil we have, found in Bolivia
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Most probable migration theory for New World monkeys
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Africa to South America (South Atlantic island hopping)
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Miocene Epoch
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25-5 mya, flocculation of warm and cold climate, development of apes
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Early Miocene Apes
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Not much specialization
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Proconsul
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Early Miocene ape
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Early Miocene Ape characteristics
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No external tail, open hip and should joints (wide range of motion), medium to large size, 2-1-2-3 dental formula, and all · arboreal quadrupeds
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Dryopithecus
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Middle-late Miocene ape, more specialization
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Sivapithecus
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Middle-late Miocene ape, direct ancestor of Orangutans
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Gigantopithecus
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Middle-late Miocene ape, about 7-8 feet tall, most likely ate leaves (teeth indicate this), and had no ancestors (went extinct).
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Y-5 molar pattern
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Seen in Miocene apes, living apes, and us. Each molar has 5 cusps with a "y" shape separating them.
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ANTH 110: Exam 3