Primate Evolution

Week 1: Introduction to Course and Osteology
1/11 Introduction to course, tour of lab
Assignment: Library Searchpath Tutorial
1/13 Lab: How do we identify fossil bones? Skull and axial skeleton
Reading: Fleagle chapter 2.

Week 2: Library work and Osteology
1/16 MLK Day: No classes
1/18 Meet at Waldo Library Atrium for session with Elaine Jayne.
1/20 Lab: How do we identify fossil bones? The appendicular skeleton
Web: The eSkeletons Project at the University of Texas and the Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates

Week 3: Living Primates (click to download Powerpoint Lecture Outlines on Primates)
1/23 What is a Primate?
Reading: Fleagle chapter 1 and pp. 577-580
Web: Duke University Primate Center and Primates.com
1/25 Slide show on Living Primates
Reading: Fleagle chapter 3
Web: Primate Info Net
1/27 Primate Lives: Ecology, Locomotion and social behavior
Osteology Quiz

Week 6: Cladistics and Phylogeny Reconstruction (click to download Powerpoint lectures on Cladistics)
2/13 Introduction to Cladistics
Reading: Fleagle chapter 1 (read it again!)
Web: Phylogenetic Systematics
2/15 Doing Cladistics with MacClade
Web: The Compleat Cladist (click to download the pdf file and read it)
2/17 Lab: Using MacClade

Week 7: Paleontology Movies!
2/20 "Dinosaurs of the Gobi"
Web: AMNH Gobi Expedition Slide Show
2/22 "The Hunt for China's Dinosaurs"
2/24 Spirit Day: No Classes

Week 9: The Importance of Body Size (click to download Powerpoint lectures on Body Size)
3/6 Body size and primate adaptations
Reading: Fleagle chapter 9
3/8 Exploring body size with regression analysis
3/10 More regression analysis

Week 10: Primate Life History
3/13 Teeth and Life History
Reading: Fleagle pp. 67-73 from chapter 3 (again!)
3/15 Life History theory
3/17 Dental microstructure & life history of primates (W. Dirks)

Week 11: Primate Origins
3/20 Primate Origins (click to download Powerpoint lectures on Primate origins)
Reading: Fleagle chapter 11
Web: Paleocene mammals
3/22 Primate Communities (click to download Powerpoint lectures on Primate communities )
Reading: Fleagle chapter 8
3/24 Paleogeography and climate during the Eocene

Week 12: The First Euprimates
3/27 Adapoidea (click to download Powerpoint lectures on Eocene primates)
Reading: Fleagle chapter 12
3/29 Omomyoidea
3/31 Movie: "Life in the trees"
Reading: Fleagle chapter 4 on modern prosimians

Week 13: Anthropoid Origins and New World Monkeys
4/3 Slide show: Fieldwork in Eocene of SW Wyoming
4/5 The Earliest Anthropoids (click to download Powerpoint lectures on Anthropoid Origins )
Reading: Fleagle chapter 13
4/7 Fossil Platyrrhines (click to download Powerpoint lectures on fossil New World Monkeys )
Reading: Fleagle chapter 5 & 14

Week 14: Old World Monkeys
4/10 Fossil Old World Monkeys
Reading: Fleagle chapter 6 &16
4/12 Movie: TBA
4/14 Slide Show: Fieldwork in the Miocene of northern Kenya

Week 15: Apes
4/17 Miocene Apes
Reading: Fleagle chapter 7 & 15
4/19 Student presentations
4/21 Student Presentations

Digital Portfolio Assignments 1-3
Anth 3500: Primate Evolution
Friday January 27, 2006

These assignments are to be done out-of-class and will be turned in as part of your ‘digital portfolio’ for this class. The deadline for the first three assignments is Friday February 10. Each assignment requires you to locate and/or use web resources to answer the question, using where appropriate, both text and images (still, video, whatever). You may find that you want to present some of these assignments as Powerpoint presentations, illustrated Word files, or even html files (i.e., web pages): you are encouraged to use the most appropriate software tools that are available to you to craft visually interesting and informative responses. See me or the helpful people at the Computer Center for help with the software.

Primate Comparative Osteology. Using the eSkeletons website at the University of Texas, compare and contrast each of the available views of the humerus or femur from a human, a chimpanzee, and a baboon. Identify all the landmarks on the chimp and baboon bone that we identified in class on the human bone. Describe the differences and similarities between the taxa. Is the chimp or the baboon bone more similar to humans? Does your answer make sense in light of primate taxonomy? How about in terms of their locomotor behavior? Explain.

Primate Taxonomy. Search the web for websites about the Primates. Choose a taxonomic Family of living primates, and find images of different members of that Family on the web. Create a Powerpoint file with 10 pictures of different members of your Family. On each slide include the following information: common and scientific name, average body size (in grams), geographic range of the animal, and the url of the web site where you found the picture and information.

Literature Search. Use the Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates Online to perform the following searches. Copy and paste the lists of complete citations into well organized word documents.

Search for papers on one of the following taxa: Cantius, Notharctus, Omomys, Absarokius, and Meniscotherium.
Search for papers by one of the following authors: Gingerich, Covert, Gunnell, Jepsen, and Granger.
Search for papers on one of the following subjects: Eocene and Wyoming, Eocene and Montana, Eocene and Utah, Eocene and North Dakota, Paleocene and Wyoming.

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