Chapter 34b:Vertebrates(mammals)
Mam
mal
iaThough mammals
predate the dinosaurs, it was only once the
dinosaurs were mostly gone that the mammal
adaptive radiation began in earnest
The defining features of extant mammals are their
hair, mammary glands, larger brains,
differentiated teeth, modified jaws, etc.
The mammal lineage
predates the mammals with the
synapsids: the mammal-like reptiles
Mam
mal
s: M
onot
rem
es
Mon
otre
me:
Ech
idna
Mon
otre
me:
Pla
typu
s
Duck-billed platypuses are aquatic so keep their eggs
warm in burrows until hatching
Mam
mal
s: M
arsu
pial
s
Exam
ples
of M
arsu
pial
s
Mam
mal
s: E
uthe
rians
Eutherians are the placental mammals, i.e., the majority of
mammals are eutherians
Mam
mal
s: P
rimat
es
The primates inhabit a branch of the mammalian phylogeny also occupied by the rodents
Ord
er P
rimat
esThe
anthropoids include the monkeys, the apes,
and us
Variety of
primate hands
Prosimians
Prim
ates
Primates possess numerous adaptations that allow rapid movement through trees
• Remember all the characteristics of primates we talked about! (AND DISTINGUISH THEM FROM HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS)
Pros
imia
n: A
Lem
ur
Monkeys are Anthropoids
Ord
er P
rimat
es
The hominoids include the apes and us
Known or Suspect Hominids
Hominids (by your text) are more closely morphologically similar to us than they are to
chimpanzees
Sim
plifi
ed T
ree
Aust
ralo
pith
icus
afa
rens
is
Hom
o ha
bilis
Hom
o er
ectu
s H. erectus lived from approximately 1.8 to 0.5
million years ago and perhaps even longer H. erectus was the most successful of the the
genus Homo lineages in terms of time on Earth H. erectus spread her kind throughout the old
world
Pan H. erectus
H. sapiensHomo
Hom
o er
ectu
s