My comparison of each categories of primates is body size and sexual dimorphism.
1. Lemurs
a. Lemurs are only found on the African island of Madagascar and some neighbor islands because of the geographic isolation. *1
b. Their body size is about 17.75 in (45cm) and the tail is about 21.75 in (55cm). Their wight could be 5 -7 lbs (2.3 to 3.4 kg)*1, the body size of them is about same as a domestic cat. Lemurs exhibit sexual dimorphism in their body size, male is slightly bigger than female, and coloring between male and female.*2 The biggest physical difference of Lemur from other primates is that they do not have prehensile tails. *3
c. All lemurs are arboreal, however, few species of Lemur spend most of live on the ground (e.g. Ring-Tailed Lemurs.) *4 Unlike other primates, Lemurs cannot use their tail to hang on the trees or grab fruit. Therefore, Lemurs run and jump among trees to transport. Lemurs have experienced evolutionary change to adapt an extremely seasonal environment of Madagascar. One of their change is low metabolism to service the dry season in Madagascar. *5
2. Spider Monkey
a. Spider monkeys live in tropical climates, specifically the rein forests of Central and South America. They can also be found in Mexico. *6
b. Their height (adult) would be about 14 - 25 in (35 - 66cm), weight would be about 13.25 lb (6kg). There is no sexual dimorphism between male and female spider monkeys.*6
c. Spider monkey lives in the upper canopy alters of rainforest, and they almost never coming down to the ground. Their long limbs and tail are example of captions to the living of rainforest. Their tail is working as their extra fifth limb.Their body structure is highly designed to live and travel among trees. *8
3. Baboon
a. Baboons live in Africa or Arabia. They prefer living in savanna and other semi-arid habitats. Few live in tropical forests. *9
b. Their head and body size could be 20 to 34 in (60 to 86 cm), their tail could be 16 to 23 in (41cm to 58cm). Wight could be between 33 and 82 lb (22 to 37kg.) *9 Baboons exhibit sexual dimorphism usually in size, sometimes it appears in color or canine development. *10
c. Baboons' tail are not prehensile as like Lemurs, they spend most of time on the ground. Their main predators are men and leopard. Baboons appears evolutionary changes in their teeth and jaw to survive the life on the ground. Baboons have sharp strong canine and strong jaw ro protect and fight with their predator. *10
4. Gibbon
a. Gibbons live in South Asia and Indonesia, up to the forest of the highlands of China. *11
b. Their body size could be 17 to 25 in (44 to 64 cm). Wight could be between 9 and 29 lb (4 to 13kg.) *12 Gibbons does not exhibit sexual dimorphism. *13
c. Their habitat on trees, rarely on the ground. They spend majority of time in the tree canopy. Their tail has been evolved to adjust the life on the tree, Gibbons can swing great distance between branches in the forest canopy with the tail (brachiation). *11 Gibbons have very long arms comparing to other primates. Gibbons' arm length is disproportionately long in comparison to their body. This is an adaption to their life on the tree, an the transportation. *11
5. Chimpanzee
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a. Chimpanzees live in African rain forests, woodlands, and grasslands. *14
b. Their body size could be 4 to 5.5 ft (1.2 to 1.7 m). Wight could be between 70 and 130 lb (32 to 60kg.) *14 Chimpanzees slightly exhibit sexual dimorphism. *15
c. Chimpanzees adaptions to their environment is their hands and feet. Their hands have 5 fingers and feet have 5 toes. This enable them to grasp and hold objects. their adaption is to protect their family from predators and catch pees. For example, grasping tree branches to transport, and throwing rock to attack pray. Chimpanzees perform actions with both hands and feet unlike humans. *16
Summarize
I noticed that all primates have a social structure. they all live in a group and it is highly structured and ruled. The purpose of living in a group is mainly protection, adult protects young. It sometimes works as a prevention of being attacked by predators, too. Primates uses vocalization to communicate each other, and it is especially used as a caution for predators. Humans does not have predators, however, our social structure is still similar to these primates. Living in a community and verbal communication is same as primates.
This 4 of primates but baboon live similar habitat, most of them live on the tree canopy. However, the evolutionary change in their body is slightly different. some of them have long tail to hang themselves on branches, other has long arm to transport between branches but no tail. they all have predator on the ground and their body structure is an adaption to escape form the predators. though, I couldn't find why they evolved differently even though the change is aimed to escape from the same problem and live in the same habitat.
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Lemur Image: http://cheesiemack.com/cool-duel/lemurs/
*1 http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/ring-tailed-lemur/
*2 http://science.jrank.org/pages/3903/Lemurs-True-lemurs.html
*3 http://www.lemurs.us/basics.html
*4 http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Lemuridae/
*5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemur
Spider monkey Image: http://www.costaricajourneys.com/spider-monkey/
*6 http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/spider-monkey/
*7 http://www.academia.edu/392092/Morphology_and_evolution_of_the_Spider_Monkey_Genus._Ateles
*8 http://www.buzzle.com/articles/rainforest-animal-adaptations.html
Baboon Image: http://www.endlessloopphotography.com/2011/01/lolomarik-farm-kenya-part-2.html
*9 http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/baboon/
*10 http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/animals/mammals/baboon.htm
Gibbon Image: http://thelife-animal.blogspot.com/2011/12/gibbon.html
*11 http://tolweb.org/treehouses/?treehouse_id=4522
*12 http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/gibbon/?source=A-to-Z
*13 http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/photos/11-animals-that-mate-for-life/gibbons
Chimpanzee Image: http://www.northrup.org/photos/chimp/2/
*14 http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/chimpanzee/?source=A-to-Z
*15 http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/chimpanzee
*16 http://thechimpanzeepage.wikispaces.com/Modern+Day+Animal+-+Chimpanzee
Lot's of good sourcing.
ReplyDeleteGood background on all of the primates. For the most part, you did great describing the body size and sexual dimorphism of each primate (though there is pretty significant dimorphism in the body size of the chimpanzees).
In part c, you seemed to struggle to draw the connections between the environment and your focus traits. You mentioned the issue of arboreal or terrestrial practices, but didn't draw a direct connection between that and body size, which would have been an important connection to make.
You discuss the issue of predation and start to make the connection between anti-predation strategies and sexual dimorphism, but again you don't quite get there. I would have liked to have see an attempt to explain why some species have sexual dimorphism and others don't.
Another factor which impacts sexual dimorphism is whether or not a primate group is territorial. Territorial species tend to have greater levels of dimorphism as well.
You are on the right track. You just need to continue the logical path you started on to make the final conclusion.
Reading your blog was interesting. While researching the primates for my post I also found out that the gibbons have monogamous relationships and create small families having up to 4 baby gibbons. They seem very similar to humans in this way.
ReplyDeleteAh, but do you know that, across cultures, the most common mating pattern among humans is polygyny? :-)
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