Primate Adaptation
Choose ONE living primate species from the following website. http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets Use this information for morphology. In formal essay format, answer the following prompts about your primate:
1. Introduce the paper topic, including the scientific name of your primate, their general location/environment and provide a clear purpose to your paper through a thesis statement.
2. Discuss what makes your primate a member of the primate order. (Refer to “”Classification of Primates”” lecture where I discuss general primate traits like 5 digits, opposable thumbs, etc). You do not need to cite information in this section if it comes from the lectures and textbook.
3. Discuss the SPECIALIZED morphological (physical) characteristics that your primate has which has allowed it to adapt to their environment. Make sure to explain why these features are adaptive. You want to analyze how the environment lead to these adaptations. (This section should be informed by the primate website provided above, if you use other resources, cite and reference them properly in APA).
4. Discuss the social behavior of the primate you have chosen in terms of what makes those specific behaviors adaptive in this primate’s environment. You want to analyze how the environment lead to these behaviors being adaptive (This requires one new scholarly journals from the library.)
5. Provide a conclusion
Sample Solution
Primate Adaptation
All primates are descended from tree-dwellers, exhibiting adaptations which allow for tree climbing that include: a rotating shoulder joint, separated big toes and thumb for grasping, and stereoscopic vision. The common marmosets, (scientific name: Callithrix jacchus), are arboreal diurnal New World monkeys domiciled in northeast and central Brazil. They are considered cooperative breeders as it takes more than the parents to rear the offspring. As with other members of the genus Callithrix, the common marmosets have claw-like nails known as tegulae on most of their fingers. Only their halluces (big toes) have the flat nails or ungulae that most other primates have. Marmosets have an arboreal locomotion similar to squirrels. They can hang onto trees vertically and leap between them, and run across branches quadrupedally.
