Paleontology #14
Chapter 23.

PRIMATES and their kin

The Archonta are a group of orders that show early preference for arboral habitats. Included here are the bats, tree shrews, colugos, and the primates. Primate adaptations for life in the trees include grasping hands and feet with opposable thumbs, binocular stereoscoptic vision and other visual adaptations, a great increase in brain complexity and behavioral complexity, and a prolonged period of child care and juvenile learning.

  • Order Chiroptera (bats):
    • Megachiroptera (fruit bats)
    • Microchiroptera (insect-eating bats)
  • Order Scandentia (tree shrews)
  • Order Dermoptera (colugos)
  • Order Primates
    • Primate characteristics
    • Suborder Plesiadapoidea
    • Suborder Strepsirhini (lorises and lemurs)
    • Suborder Tarsioidea
    • Suborder Platyrrhina (New World monkeys and marmosets)
    • Suborder Catarrhina (Old World monkeys, apes and humans)
      • Parapithecoidea
      • Cercopithecoidea (Old World monkeys)
      • Hominoidea (Apes and humans)
Illustrations


Syllabus
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