b. A description of your specified character trait for that primate.
c. A discussion on how the primate’s trait expression has been influenced by its environment, i.e., how can the trait be viewed as an adaptation to the primate’s environment.
d. An image of that primate, preferably displaying the trait you are studying, if possible.
Lemurs (Prosimians/Strepsirhini)
Lemurs are found in Madagascar, in which they look like a cat mixed with a squirrel and a dog. Lemurs were isolated from evolutionary changes of this world and were put into many large islands with no predation. They share the same structures as monkeys. Lemurs live in tress called arboreal and live in groups with about 17 others.
Lemur's diet in which they eat is nuts and fruit, which is very easy to find in their habitat (Trees) and they eat even insects and small animals when fruits arent growing yet.
The lemurs spend most of their time on top of the trees in the rainforest. They are awake during the day and asleep at night. Lemurs live all over, depending on what type of lemur, they can live in hot and cool areas. This affects their environment because when there is no fruit that is growing, there main source, they have to eat animals or insects instead of the fruit. They usually move around to secure their food. They also move to different places when sleeping, in which they want to stay away from predators.
Spider Monkey (New World Monkey/Platyrrhini)
Spider monkeys are primitives of the monkeys in the new world. They usually live in central or south america or northern areas of mexico. They live in dense and wet tropical rainforests. They are also arboreal animals, they live in trees in the rainforest. There is no competition with them or other animals.
Spider monkeys diet is they are omnivorous, they eat mainly fruits and seeds, called fruigivorous. They sometimes will eat on leaves that are young, flowers, roots, sometimes bark and honey, insects and even bird eggs. They also can eat while they are hanging or even climbing.
In the spider monkey's environment, they live and move from tree to tree. They live in groups and females take a leading role then the male monkeys because they find food better.
Baboon (Old World Monkey/Cercopithecidae)
Baboon lives in both Asia and Africa and live in tropical areas. They can also be found in dry areas as well. They spend most of their rime on trees and sometimes on land and any kind of change in weather doesn't seem to affect or bother them.
The baboon's diet includes many different plants and leaves and are even slow eaters, it can take hours for them to be finished with their meals in a day. They can also eat insects and small animals if needed. They try to eat as much as they can to store fat and keep them going.
Their diet can be an adaptation to their environment because when living in rainforests like these, you usually find so many plants and that is what they eat because of where they live. They usually do whatever they want. They live in groups so things wont be chaotic and usually there is fights between them because of the many groups and baboons living in their habitat. They are very similar to humans and usually sit on their butts.
Gibbon (Lesser ape/Hylobatidae)
Gibbons' live in either Northeast india, indonesia, southern china. And can be in living areas such as sub tropical or tropical regions. They prefer warmer weather, in which there is more food and shelter and lie on trees.
Their diet includes their favorite, fruit. They can eat many foods and will even move to find any food they want. 60% of food consumes is fruit and eat simple things they live with like; twigs, figs, leaves and flowers and insects.
Gibbons are said to swing from tree to tree to find food and this affects their environment because all they live near is trees, in which includes figs, insects and flowers and they eat that because it is in their niche. They are very much like monkeys, themselves. they are very aggressive when it comes to securing their food, they will be very vocal so no one touches their space.
Chimpanzee (Great ape/Hominidae)
Chimpanzees live in the grassland and woodland of central and west Africa. They live in the rain forest on trees. They live in communities and can take care of themselves. They spend most of their time on the ground.
Their diet consists of eating mainly fruits and plants. They even eat animals that are small, like monkeys. They also enjoy eating leaves, flowers, seeds and nuts. They like to hunt and eat many meat.
If anyone destroys their habitat, the population will decrease and this would be a big threat to Chimpanzees. Chimpanzees' environment is in the rain forest with tree and they climb back and forth on them to collect and gather food for them and live in groups with their families. Their diet is based on where they live and have to live in that area because food is there, but they can migrate somewhere else just to get food and shelter.
Summarize your findings, evaluating the level of influence the environment has on the expression of physical and behavioral traits. (15 pts)
All these primitives are very similar when it comes to what they eat, all mainly eating fruits and plants and insects when needed. They all usually live in trees in the rain forest and climb and sleep or do whatever they please. They all same same characteristics but look different. They do behave the same, where they are so simply that all they basically do is eat and sleep. They are all also arboreal.
Yes, these organisms have a lot of similarities, but we would expect a certain level of similarities as they are all from the same primate family. What is interesting are the differences and seeing if those differences can be explained by their environmental differences, so a deeper exploration beyond their similarities was needed here.
ReplyDeleteFor example, lemurs, spider monkeys and gibbons are essentially completely arboreal. This is in part due to predation dangers. They escape predators by an avoidance strategy instead of intimidation or aggression. But this limits them to the tree tops and keeps them away from food sources on the ground. Keep in mind that the "environment" isn't just the habitat but also the other organisms in that environment that can serve as competitors for food or as predators. These will also represent environmental pressures to which these animals must adapt.
Conversely, baboons and chimpanzees spend much of their time on the ground (baboons tend to live more on dry savannah areas in addition to some rain forest areas). They have developed other strategies to deal with predation threat, namely larger body size, intimidation and aggression. As such, this opens up other avenues of food items for these two primates that they wouldn't otherwise have. As baboons also live in drier climates, the need for water is an additional selection pressure that needed to be mentioned here.
Good images.
Though we we were assigned different traits you had some interesting facts that I did not come across while doing my research such as Baboons storing fat. I would check some of your facts though. Baboons are terrestrial which means they spend more time on the ground which highly affects their diets.
ReplyDelete