Primate Locomotion Essay

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Primate Locomotion From the beginning of time, primates have evolved from the trees to the ground and now the ultimate in evolution is the human. Having to adapt to new environments, each primate brought crucial evolutionary changes. Over a course of time, the planet has experienced several changes in the climate, weather and geography. Factors such a continental drift have caused primates to be come less arboreal and more terrestrial. For the most part primates are classified quadrupedal. Primates travel in methods of brachiation, vertical clinging and leaping, knuckle walking, and bipedalism for modern man. Through natural selection and evolution primates developed an increase of hair density changes in body configuration and have shifted to having a gradual upright stance. Grade I-Lemurs The first grade of primates came in the Paleocene epoch, about 65 million years ago. It is the most primitive, and it includes true lemurs, galagos and lorises. This group of primates rely commonly on an ancestral trait known as olfaction, sense of smell. There ability to smell comes from a moist, fleshy pad, or rhinarium at the end of their nose along with a long snout. Uncommon in other primates, prosimians routinely mark their territory with scent (jurmain,208). A grooming claw on the second digit of their feet , and a dental tooth comb formed by forward projecting lower incisors and canies are some of their distinctive characteristics. This group of primates has hair covering their faces with a few exceptions such as the Sifakas lemur. (Sifakas Lemur). The true lemurs also known as the brown lemurs are only found in the island of Madagascar in the Indian ocean. Many of the lemurs eat fruit, flowers, and leaves. Since their ancestors were displaced in other parts of the world by apes, monkey, and tarsiers, lemurs varied into many ecological niches

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