Comparing of Primates

LEMURS

Lemurs are know as Prosimians or better yet the "pre monkey".  Leumurs mostly lived in tropical regions, but some also reside in dry deserts. Today they are mostly found on the island of Madagascar and near the Comoro Islands.  There are many different species of lemurs of which most live in trees and bushes, there is only one species who lives mostly on ground level, that would be the ringtail lemur. Nocturnal lemurs tend to live alone while those who are not tend to live in social groups with others. These 'morning' lemurs eat fruits and vegetables and tend to be very vocal.  It has been found that females are the dominant gender in this species. These dominant females express very aggressive behavior upon the males to express their power.  The environment plays a big role on females successful reproduction of off springs. Female Lemurs typically give birth to one off spring per year because of the environment. Mating season is only about 7-21 days and the females all mate around the same time each year.  In whole the environment effects lemurs in many ways. Because of the harsh environment that these animals live in living in groups allow these primates to survive longer and better because of the social benefits and the greater force of finding food, rather than the nocturnal ones who live on their own and have a lower success rate in survival. This also goes along with the small birth rate because of the environment that disadvantages the species in reproducing.

SPIDER MONKEY

Spider monkeys are under the family of New World Monkeys who are 'limited to tropical forest environments of southern Mexico, Central, and South America."  Spider monkeys live most of their lives up very high from the forest floors in the canopies.  They tend to live in groups of several dozen, but will move around independently in the area that the group is living.  The females tend to be the dominant one in this species as well.  Each female will produce one offspring every 3 - 4 year and the females are solely responsible for raising the offspring.  Because there is such a big group these primates plan out their foraging routes and plan where they will get food depending on how plentiful or scarce the supply is. These primates are small animals compared to the many big predators that leaves them up in the trees, this limits how and where they get their food, also the environment of scarce food at times and their level on the food chains has mothers spacing the amount of time between their offspring. This allows them to care for one baby until they can fend for themselves, mothers tend to carry their baby's on their back while the babies cling on.

BABOON 

The Baboon is within the Old World Monkey family. Old World Monkeys occupy many different environments in South and East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the tip of Spain.  Some of the environments that they live in within these regions are tropical forest, arid grasslands, and mountain areas with heavy snows.  Baboons form troops that are very large, that contains a hierarchy.  These primates spend lots of time with one another, females especially tend to stay in a matrilineal group, while males have tendencies to move from many groups; these primates tend to be polygamous. Due to the hierarchy of this species, allows for the ones of higher stature to take food and water from those of lower rank. This in turn, especially during harsh seasonal conditions, can cause reproductive harm and sickness, and death. 

GIBBON

Gibbons are part of the ape family, specifically Hylobatidae; these primates originated from Southeast Asia.  They spend most of their time in trees in tropical rain forests.  These primates are very social and group together in small families much similar to humans (parents and off spring) and stay with the same mate for their life span.  Gibbons can only have one offspring at a time. Due to the destruction of rain forests, the Gibbons natural habitat, it is making it near to impossible for these small family groups to survive and defend themselves when trees are being cut down. Not only are Gibbon disappearing due to this, their slow 7month pregnancy with only one offspring makes it hard for a speedy reproductions of this species, making them endangered.

CHIMPANZEE

Chimpanzees are also part of the ape family known also as Hominidae and are found to originate in Africa.  They live in areas that are humid canopy forests, dry forests, and savannas.  These primates are very social and live in groups where the males are dominant.  Males are very closely bonded and stay in these social groups for life.  The only time the group breaks up is to go foraging for food. Because the males are dominant they can protect the group from harms way while the females can produce offspring and care for them.

Overall the environment seems to play a big role on impacting the sociality and mating patterns of these five species of primates.  This goes into how scarce food is, how harsh the elements are, and how prone to enemies these species are in their environment.  This in turn influences mating patterns and how social these animals are with one another.  Species who are not going extinct due to the deterioration of their habitat (who are not adapting well to this new environment) and those who are in smaller groups tend to effect their survival and reproduction rate. While those who are in big groups are able to find more food and protect one another.

Old World Monkey Habitat

Baboon Sociality and Mating 

New World Monkey Habitat

Spider Monkey Sociality and Mating 

Lemurs Habitat

Lemur Sociality and Mating

Ape Family Habitat

GIbbon Sociality and Mating 

Chimpanzee Mating and Sociality 

Analogy and Homology Comparison

Homologus Traits

The two species that acquire the Homologus Trait are chimpanzees and humans. There is much debate about the relationship of evolution in regards to humans and primates, but humans and primates have some similar traits. The trait I am focusing on between the two species are opposable thumbs.

"Homologous traits are evidence of a shared ancestry."  Although there are many similarities to human and chimpanzee hands there are also differences which set them apart and have them on different branches.  The human hand's thumb is longer, more muscular, and more mobile than a primates thumb; there other fingers are shorter and flatter in comparison to primates.  The Chimpanzee's thumb is much shorter to create a better grasp for swinging on trees, along with their longer and curved fingers to assist with that task as well. Primates hands are also not as flexible because they use their knuckles for walking and need more support.

Chimpanzees and Humans originate from the animalia kingdom within the Mammalia class.The class the Anthropoidea came before the Hominoidea (apes and humans) branch according to the textbook Introduction to Physical Anthropology. The earliest fossils were found in East Africa.  These decedents are distinguished from old world monkeys by a larger nasal and palate region and larger brains.  Their hands and arms continued to evolve and develop.

Analogous Traits

Two species who have an Analogous Trait are dolphin fins and shark fins.  Both sharks and dolphins are species found to live in the depths of the ocean and survive within this environment. But they have evolved from two different species and their development of fins was pressured by their environment.

Dolphins evolved from Artiodactyla and is in the same family as hippos.  Dolphins lineage does not have any line of previous mammals who have fins.  Also, the shark has evolved from fish, making these two species Analogous.  The fins of sharks are very rigid and sturdy because they are supported by cartilage.  The fins of dolphins do not have this kind of support. Their fins are held up by collagen fibers.  The development of these fins was for the purpose of stability in water while swimming is what some researchers are saying.

Works Cited

"Anthropoids." Eskeletons. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://www.eskeletons.org/treecat.html>.

"Using Homologies to Reconstruct Relationships." Using Homologies to Reconstruct Relationships. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/similarity_hs_11>.

Protein Synthesis

TRY AND DECODE! :)

CATTTACACGTGCACCGTTATATAAGAGAGCTTGAGTACCGCTATATTAATCCTAA

Historical Influences on Darwin

The contribution that Thomas Malthus made to Darwin’s Theory was of the most important. It is what got him Darwin and Wallace to expand their mind on a theory as to how evolution can occur. He published a book called Essay on the Principle of Population which got the ball rolling on Darwin’s concept of evolution theory.  The article states that his book “warned fellow Englishmen that most policies designed to help the poor were doomed because of the relentless pressure of population growth.  A nation could easily double its population in a few decades leading to famine and misery for all.” Darwin believed this could be related to animals and plants.  But as humans, and animals and plants included, we are not reproducing at unmanageable rate because the environment does not allow us to “reproduce to our full potential.”  “…The world is not overrun with them (bugs), or any other species, because they cannot reproduce to their full potential.  Many die before they become adults.  They are vulnerable to droughts and cold winters and other environmental assaults.  And their food supply, like that of a nation, is not infinite.  Individuals must compete…for what little food there is”.

Malthus helped answer questions such as: Do all organisms have the potential of reproducing exponentially? What is preventing organisms from reproducing at their potential? Do limited resources affect organisms and their environment? Will organisms with better access to resources be more successful in their reproductive efforts?

1. He states that in a perfect world where resources were limited and there was no outside force of survival instinct then this could be true, but naturally no animal, human, or plant has that potential.
2. The limited amount of resources food, water and environment, Malthus explained, was what limited organism from producing because they did not have the resources that they needed to survive.
3. Yes, the previous two statements answer this question in depth.
4. Yes, with more accesses to resources the better chance at successful reproduction is possible.

Darwin could have not come up with his theory of natural selection because Malthus theory of limited resources greatly ties in with this concept.  Darwin and Wallace had the idea they just needed the proof behind it which Malthus gave.  The idea that the environment, an outside force of which cannot be stopped because the earth can only give and take so much, led way to Darwin’s idea of natural selection. 

The churches had much influence, especially scientists, over society when their comments or actions stepped outside the boundaries of religion.  Because of this scientists had a difficult time speaking out about their thoughts, theories, and discoveries in fear of being ridiculed or worse. Because of Malthus’ book Essay on the Principle of Population it allowed Darwin and Wallace to develop the theory of natural selection with proof and evidence. This gave him the backing of his theories for evolution and natural selection and thus Darwin’s Theory was developed along with his book The Origin of Species.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_14