Biology

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32-3 Primates and

Human Origins

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32-3 Primates and Human Origins

What Is a Primate?

What characteristics do all primates

share?

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What Is a Primate?

What Is a Primate?
In general, primates have binocular
vision, a well-developed cerebrum,
relatively long fingers and toes, and
arms that can rotate around their
shoulder joints.

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What Is a Primate?

Fingers, Toes, and Shoulders

Flexible digits enable primates to run along tree
limbs and swing from branch to branch with
ease.

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What Is a Primate?

Primates arms are well adapted to climbing because

they can rotate in broad circles around a strong
shoulder joint.
In most primates, the thumb and big toe can move
against the other digits. This characteristic allows
primates to hold objects in their hands or feet.

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What Is a Primate?

Well-Developed Cerebrum
The large cerebrum of primates enables them to
display more complex behaviors than many other
mammals.
Many species have social behaviors that include
adoption of orphans and even warfare between
rival primate troops.

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What Is a Primate?

Binocular Vision
Many primates have a flat face, so both eyes
face forward with overlapping fields of view. This
facial structure allows for binocular vision.
Binocular vision is the ability to merge visual
images from both eyes, providing depth
perception and a three-dimensional view of the
world.

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Evolution of Primates

What are the major evolutionary groups of

primates?

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Evolution of Primates

Evolution of Primates
The two main groups of primates are
prosimians and anthropoids.

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Evolution of Primates

Hominoids
New
World Old World
Lorises and
GorillasChimpanzees
monkeys
Gibbons
bush babies
monkeys
Humans
Orangutans
Tarsiers
Lemurs

Prosimians
Primate ancestor

Anthropoids
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Evolution of Primates

Prosimians
Most prosimians alive today are small,
nocturnal primates with large eyes that are
adapted to seeing in the dark.
Living prosimians include bush babies, lemurs,
lorises, and tarsiers.

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Evolution of Primates

Lorises and
bush babies Lemurs Tarsiers

Prosimians
Primate ancestor
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Evolution of Primates

Anthropoids
Humans, apes, and most monkeys belong to a
group called anthropoids, which means
humanlike primates.
This group split early in its evolutionary history
into two major branches.
These branches separated as drifting continents
moved apart.
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New World Old World

monkeys monkeys Gibbons

Evolution of Primates

Orangutans
Gorillas

ChimpanzeesHumans

Anthropoids
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Evolution of Primates

One branch of anthropoids is the New World

monkeys. New World monkeys:

live almost entirely in trees.

have long, flexible arms to swing from

branches.

have a prehensile tail, which is a tail that can

coil around a branch to serve as a fifth hand.

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Evolution of Primates

The other group of anthropoids includes Old World

monkeys and great apes.

Old World monkeys live in trees but lack

prehensile tails.

Great apes, also called hominoids, include

gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees,
and humans.

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Hominid Evolution

Hominid Evolution
Between 6 and 7 million years ago, the
hominoid line gave rise to hominids. The
hominid family includes modern humans.
As hominids evolved, they began to walk upright
and developed thumbs adapted for grasping.
They also developed large brains.

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Hominid Evolution

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Modern human

Hominid Evolution

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Hominid Evolution

The skull, neck, spinal column, hipbones, and leg

bones of early hominid species changed shape in
ways that enabled later hominid species to walk
upright.
Evolution of this bipedal, or two-foot, locomotion
freed both hands to use tools.
Hominids evolved an opposable thumb that enabled
grasping objects and using tools.

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Hominid Evolution

Hominids displayed a remarkable increase in brain

size, especially in an expanded cerebrumthe
thinking area of the brain.

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Hominid Evolution

Early Hominids
At present, the hominid fossil record includes
these genera:

Ardipithecus
Australopithecus
Paranthropus
Kenyanthropus
Homo
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Hominid Evolution

There are as many as 20 separate hominid species.

This diverse group of hominid fossils covers roughly
6 million years.
All are relatives of modern humans, but not all are
human ancestors.
Questions remain about how fossil hominids are
related to one another and to humans.

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Hominid Evolution

Australopithecus
An early hominid species, Australopithecus,
lived from about 4 million to 1 million years ago.
The structure of Australopithecus teeth suggests
a diet rich in fruit.

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Hominid Evolution

The best known species is

Australopithecus afarensisbased on a
female skeleton named Lucy, who was 1
meter tall.
Members of the Australopithecus species
were bipedal and spent some time in trees.

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Hominid Evolution

Paranthropus
The Paranthropus species had huge, grinding
back teeth.
Their diets probably included coarse and fibrous
plant foods.

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Hominid Evolution

Recent Hominid Discoveries

In 2001, a team had discovered a skull in
Kenya.

Its ear resembled a chimpanzees.

Its brain was small.
Its facial features resembled those of Homo
fossils.

It was put in a new genus, Kenyanthropus,

which lived at the same time as A. afarensis.

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32-3 Primates and Human Origins

Kenyanthropus platyops

Hominid Evolution

Homo erectus

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Hominid Evolution

In 2002, paleontologists working in the desert in

north-central Africa discovered another skull.

Called Sahelanthropus, it is nearly 7 million

years old.

If it is a hominid, it would be a million years

older than any hominid previously known.

It had a brain like a modern chimp and a flat

face like a human.

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Hominid Evolution

Sahelanthropus tchadensis
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32-3 Primates and Human Origins

Hominid Evolution

What is the current scientific thinking

about hominid evolution?

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32-3 Primates and Human Origins

Hominid Evolution

Rethinking Early Hominid Evolution

Researchers once thought that human evolution
took place in steps, in which hominid species
became gradually more humanlike.

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32-3 Primates and Human Origins

Hominid Evolution

Hominid evolution did not proceed by the

simple, straight-line transformation of one
species into another.
Rather, a series of complex adaptive
radiations produced a large number of
species whose relationships are difficult to
determine.

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32-3 Primates and Human Origins

Millions of years ago

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Hominid Evolution

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Hominid Evolution

The hominid fossil record dates back 7 million years,

close to the time that DNA studies suggest for the
split between hominids and the ancestors of modern
chimpanzees.

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32-3 Primates and Human Origins

The Road to Modern

Humans

The Road to Modern Humans

Paleontologists still do not completely
understand the history and relationships of
species within our own genus.
Other species in the genus Homo existed before
Homo sapiens.

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32-3 Primates and Human Origins

The Road to Modern

Humans

The Genus Homo

The first fossils in the genus Homo are about
2.5 million years old.
These fossils were found with tools, so
researchers called the species Homo habilis,
which means handy man.

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The Road to Modern

Humans

2 million years ago, a species called Homo ergaster

appeared. It had a bigger brain and downward-facing
nostrils that resembled those of modern humans.
At some point, either H. ergaster or a related species
named Homo erectus began migrating out of Africa
through the Middle East.

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The Road to Modern

Humans

Out of AfricaBut Who and When?

Evidence suggests that hominids left Africa in
several waves, as shown in the following
diagram.

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32-3 Primates and Human Origins

The Road to Modern

Humans

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32-3 Primates and Human Origins

The Road to Modern

Humans

It is not certain where and when Homo sapiens

arose.
One hypothesis, the multi-regional model, suggests
that modern humans evolved independently in
several parts of the world from widely separated
populations of H. erectus.

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The Road to Modern

Humans

Another hypothesis, the out-of-Africa model,

proposes that modern humans evolved in Africa
between 200,000150,000 years ago, migrated out to
colonize the world, and replaced the descendants of
earlier hominid species.

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Modern Homo sapiens

Modern Homo sapiens

The story of modern humans over the past
500,000 years involves two main groups.

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32-3 Primates and Human Origins

Modern Homo sapiens

The earliest of these species is called Homo

neanderthalensis.
Neanderthals lived in Europe and Asia 200,000
30,000 years ago.
They made stone tools and lived in organized social
groups.
The other group is Homo sapienspeople whose
skeletons look like those of modern humans.
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The Road to Modern Humans

50,00040,000 years ago some populations of H.

sapiens seem to have changed their way of life:

They made more sophisticated stone blades

and elaborately worked tools from bones and
antlers.

They produced cave paintings.

They buried their dead with elaborate rituals.

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The Road to Modern Humans

About 40,000 years ago, a group known as CroMagnons appeared in Europe.

By 30,000 years ago, Neanderthals had disappeared
from Europe and the Middle East.
Since that time, our species has been Earths only
hominid.

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32-3

Click to Launch:

Continue to:

- or -

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32-3

The ability to merge visual images from both

eyes is called
a. monocular vision.
b. binocular vision.
c. overlapping vision.
d. color vision.

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32-3

Which of the following is true about hominid evolution?

a. The development of a large brain happened before
bipedal locomotion.
b. There is a straight line of descent from the earliest
hominid species to Homo sapiens.
c. The genus Homo appeared before the genus
Australopithecus.
d. Hominid evolution took place as a series of adaptive
radiations that produced a large number of species.

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32-3

The evolution of bipedal locomotion was

important because it
a. increased brain size.
b. made it easier to see.
c. freed both hands to use tools.
d. allowed easier escape from predators.

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32-3

The multi-regional model hypothesizes that

a. Homo sapiens evolved independently in
several parts of the world.
b. Modern humans evolved in Africa, then
migrated to various parts of the world.
c. Neanderthals produced cave drawings.
d. Homo habilis descended from Homo erectus.

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32-3

The oldest known Homo sapiens skeletons are

about
a. 6,000 years old.
b. 100,000 years old.
c. 3 million years old.
d. 30 million years old.

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