Order Primates
- First Primates
- Insectivore ancestors
- Aboreal
Primate Chacteristics
- limber shoulder joints for brachiation
- dextrous hands
- sensitive fingers with nails
- eyes front (depth perception)
- excellent hand-eye coordination
Primate classification
- Suborder Prosimii - (premonkeys) - lemurs, etc.
- Suborder Anthropoidea - (monkeys, apes, humans)
Primate evolution
- Oldest Anthropoid fossils found in Africa and Asia (40 million yrs. old)
- Oldest Ape fossils - Aegyptopithecus 35 million years ago.
- Most anthropologists believe humans and apes diverged from common ancestor 6 -8 million years ago. (earliest fossils about 4 million yrs. bp)
- Australopithecus
- Australopithecus africanus
- Australopithecus afarensis
- Other species
Genus Homo
- Homo habilis
- 2.5 milion yr. bp
- Homo erectus -
- Java man
- Beijing man
- Taller, larger brain case than H. habilis
- Homo sapiens
- Oldest fossils 100,000 years old
- Two theories on Origin of Modern Humans
- Monogenesis Model
- Multiregional Model