Essay On Primates

Words: 504
Pages: 3

At first, dinosaurs lived freely in forests, but around 65 million years ago the dinosaurs died. Then ten million years later primates emerged. Our earliest ancestors developed unique characteristics sometime after the extinction of dinosaurs. Primates didn’t just appear suddenly after dinosaurs, they evolved over a 10 million year period. Without the dinosaurs going around, the tiny mammals were free to forge and explore which resulted in them discovering a world filled with plants and fruits. This then caused them to evolve to survive. They evolve by getting unique characteristics which formed them into primates (First Primates video).

2. What are features unique to primates?

Some features that are unique to primates are:
• Eyes that are protected by bone (class lecture 8).
• Forward-facing eyes that provide binocular vision, depth perception, and color vision (class lecture 8).
• Grasping hands because primates have opposable thumbs (class lecture 8).
• Nails instead of claws (class lecture 8).
• Larger brains (class lecture 8).
• Long gestation and parental investment (class lecture 8).

3. What are the Plesiadapiforms?

Plesiadapiforms are tiny mouse-like creatures that lived during the 10 million year period between the extinction of dinosaurs and the appearance of primates (First Primates video). They had few features that are unique to
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This fossil tells us something about the base of the primate tree and what the earliest primates look like. Dryomomys were sort of like a transitional specimen between more primitive things and later primates. As we get closer and closer to our common ancestor, the Dryomomys is one of the animals that is closest to the base there. This fossil is so important because it is the most primitive primate skeleton ever found (First Primates