Deck 9: Primate Origins and Evolution: the First 50 Million Years

Question 1

Which of the following is not true of the Eocene euprimates?

A)They possessed postorbital bars.
B)They had grasping digits on both hands and feet.
C)They were quite large, greater than 20 kg (44 lbs).
D)They had relatively large brains.

Answer 1

They were quite large, greater than 20 kg (44 lbs).

Question 2

Miocene victoriapithecids are considered primitive ancestors of ________ .

A)all living apes
B)all living New World monkeys
C)all living Old World monkeys
D)all living prosimians

Answer 2

all living Old World monkeys

Question 3

Based on the fossil record, scientists agree that which of the following is true?

A)Primates were much less geographically widespread in the past than they are today.
B)Primates first evolved on the ground.
C)Primates' most special feature is their adaptive versatility.
D)Primates are most similar to tree dwelling rodents.

Answer 3

Primates' most special feature is their adaptive versatility.

Question 4

If you are examining the fossil remains of the genus Dryopithecus, they are most likely from where?

A)India
B)Bolivia
C)France
D)China

Question 5

Based on their morphology, omomyids are probably closely related to ________ .

A)sifakas
B)tarsiers
C)lemurs
D)aye-ayes

Question 6

The plesiadapiform genus that had an opposable big toe with a nail at the end and therefore may be ancestral to euprimates is

A)Paromomys.
B)Ignacius.
C)Plesiadapis.
D)Carpolestes.

Question 7

The skeleton of most Miocene apes was more similar to which of the following?

A)living apes
B)living monkeys
C)living prosimians
D)living tree shrews

Question 8

Which of the following is not a typical primate trait?

A)sideways-facing eyes
B)grasping hands and grasping feet
C)relatively large brain size
D)a reduced snout

Question 9

It is now a desert, but ________ the Fayum region of Egypt was a wet tropical forest.

A)10 mya
B)15 mya
C)30 mya
D)45 mya

Question 10

Which of the following is not an early anthropoid family from the Fayum?

A)Victoriapithecidae
B)Parapithecidae
C)Oligopithecidae
D)Propliopithecidae

Question 11

Approximately when did the African tectonic plate contact the Eurasian plate, allowing early African apes to migrate throughout the Old World?

A)5 mya
B)12 mya
C)17 mya
D)28 mya

Question 12

The dental formula of all known fossil and living catarrhines is

A)2/1/3/3.
B)2/1/2/3.
C)2/1/2.
D)2/1/3/2.

Question 13

The group of archaic mammals that lived during the Paleocene epoch and are likely very closely related to the earliest primates are

A)plesiadapiforms.
B)omomyids.
C)adapids.
D)tarsiers.

Question 14

Which of the following was the first primate fossil ever recorded?

A)Australopithecus afarensis
B)Plesiadapis
C)Notharctus
D)Adapis parisiensis

Question 15

The first true primates (euprimates) appear in the fossil record about ________ .

A)56 mya
B)65 mya
C)4 mya
D)100 mya

Question 16

Which of these physical traits did not characterize the Adapids?

A)a tooth comb in the lower jaw
B)large eye orbits
C)grasping hands
D)grasping feet

Question 17

Fossil and living apes exhibit a distinctive cusp pattern on the chewing surfaces of their molar teeth known as

A)Y-5
B)Y-6
C)silodont
D)Carabelli's cusp

Question 18

The calcaneus (heel bone) of Eosimias suggests that it may be a very primitive

A)primate.
B)anthropoid.
C)New World monkey.
D)ape.

Question 19

The earliest known South American primate is a 26-million-year-old monkey from Bolivia called

A)Theropithecus.
B)Branisella.
C)Proconsul.
D)Afropithecus.

Question 20

The northern African fossil primate called Biretia may be an early anthropoid, based on the morphology of its

A)ankle.
B)skull.
C)lower premolar tooth.
D)pelvis.

Question 21

A fossil primate with legs and arms of about equal length would most likely have gotten around using which form of locomotion?

A)leaping
B)quadrupedalism
C)swinging under branches
D)bipedalism

Question 22

The most distinctive feature of ape dentition, which clearly distinguishes apes from Old World monkeys, is

A)a 2/1/2/3 dental formula.
B)a long canine tooth in males.
C)a Y-5 molar pattern.
D)bilophodont molars.

Question 23

Which of the following is not true of the fossil ape Oreopithecus?

A)It lived during the late Miocene.
B)It had specialized molar teeth adapted for eating leaves.
C)Its fossils are found almost exclusively in coal deposits in Italy.
D)It had very short arms and long legs and was probably well suited for leaping.

Question 24

Sivapithecus is widely recognized as an ancestral member of which ape lineage?

A)gorilla
B)orangutan
C)chimpanzee
D)gibbon

Question 25

Both Colobines and Cercopithecines appear in the late Miocene fossil record, representing the two subfamilies of living

A)apes.
B)lemurs.
C)Old World monkeys.
D)New World monkeys.

Question 26

Primitive Old World monkeys from the mid to late Miocene of Africa are members of which family?

A)Propliopithecidae
B)Proconsulidae
C)Victoriapithecidae
D)Dryopithecidae

Question 27

During the Miocene epoch of the Cenozoic era, there was an adaptive radiation of which kind of primate?

A)prosimians
B)monkeys
C)apes
D)humans

Question 28

Which anatomical feature would you expect to find in the fossil remains of a nocturnal species?

A)long legs
B)pointy teeth
C)large eye orbits
D)short fingers and toes

Question 29

In which of the following extinct primates would you expect to find a 2/1/2/3 dental formula?

A)Adapis
B)Notharctus
C)Branisella
D)Proconsul

Question 30

The very large baboon-like monkey (up to 80 kg or 176 lbs) that lived during the African Plio-Pleistocene was

A)Proconsul major.
B)Oreopithecus bambolii.
C)Sivapithecus indicus.
D)Theropithecus oswaldi.

Question 31

Which of the following is not one of the main hypotheses to explain primate origins?

A)arboreal hypothesis
B)angiosperm radiation hypothesis
C)aquatic ape hypothesis
D)visual predation hypothesis

Question 32

Based on the existing fossil record and the genetics of living primates, the most likely place of origin for New World monkeys is

A)Indonesia.
B)North America.
C)Africa.
D)South America.

Question 33

Which of the following apes has been proposed as the last common ancestor of living African apes and humans?

A)Ouranopithecus
B)Sivapithecus
C)Dryopithecus
D)Gigantopithecus

Question 34

Which fossil group is characterized by an eye orbit fully enclosed by bone?

A)adapids
B)plesiadapiforms
C)anthropoids
D)omomyids

Question 35

Based on genetic analysis of living primates calibrated by the fossil record, it is estimated that apes and Old World monkeys diverged into separate lineages around

A)5 mya.
B)10 mya.
C)15 mya.
D)25 mya.

Question 36

Gigantopithecus, the largest primate that ever lived, weighed approximately

A)3 kg
B)30 kg
C)300 kg
D)3,000 kg

Question 37

If you traveled back in time to Africa about 27 mya and came across a group of the early ape Proconsul feeding in a tree, what would you not expect to see these animals doing?

A)hanging by their tails
B)grasping fruit in their hands
C)walking on all fours on branches
D)sitting upright

Question 38

Which Eocene primate from China has recently been proposed as an extremely primitive, and tiny, anthropoid?

A)Eosimias
B)Khoratopithecus
C)Adapis
D)Notharctus

Question 39

If you are digging in a 20-million-year-old fossil site in eastern Africa, which primate are you most likely to come across?

A)Proconsul
B)Oligopithecus
C)Theropithecus
D)Khoratpithecus

Question 40

Apes became extinct in southern Europe during the late Miocene, probably as a result of

A)a meteor impact.
B)a disease pandemic.
C)climate change.
D)early humans hunting them for food.

Question 41

The most likely contender for the common ancestor of all later catarrhines is

A)Oligopithecus.
B)Aegyptopithecus.
C)Parapithecus.
D)Apidium.

Question 42

Name and briefly describe the three main models, or hypotheses, of primate origins.

Question 43

A press release on the findings from a dig in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming reports the finding of a series of extinct primate fossils that may be a link between plesiadapiforms and later primates due to an opposable big toe.The find is likely

A)Notharctus.
B)Carpolestes.
C)Eosimias.
D)Apidium.

Question 44

While reading a journal article on the evolution of primate characteristics, you note that the author supports the arboreal hypothesis as the driver of the primate evolution.Which of the following arguments could you develop in response to this article?

A)Many species outside of the primate order also live in trees and have forward-facing eyes, but they are not primates.
B)The depth perception developed as a result of binocular vision is as important in feeding strategy as it is in moving through an arboreal environment.
C)Grasping hands and feet are not required for tree-living species, as many mammals lack opposability of digits.
D)All of the above.

Question 45

Discuss the reasons why Paleocene-aged plesiadapiforms should or should not be included in the order Primates.

Question 46

Contenders for primate status from the Paleocene epoch lack which of the following characteristics observed in adapids and omomyids?

A)convergent eyes, partially or fully enclosed eye orbits, increased sense of vision
B)increased sense of vision, convergent eyes, reduced sense of smell, a short snout
C)reduced sense of smell, small incisors, large canines, large brain
D)all of the above

Question 47

Early fossil primates from the Eocene would most likely have shared their habitat with

A)rodents.
B)trilobites.
C)kangaroos.
D)dinosaurs.

Question 48

The shift from the Miocene, which had greater diversity of ape species and fewer monkey species, to a living assemblage with greater diversity of monkey species and fewer ape species may be the result of

A)global climate changes that resulted in cooler, wetter environments less optimal for ape species.
B)differences in ability to exploit the habitats that resulted after a change in global climate.
C)cooler climates, where it is more difficult to preserve larger ape fossils.
D)declines in ape diversity, caused by competition from hominin species.

Question 49

Given the proliferation of apes during the Miocene, how do scientists explain the comparative rarity of living ape species at present?

Question 50

Platyrrhine fossils first appear in the South American fossil record during the late Oligocene epoch.Since they are not found in earlier fossil-bearing sediments, and South America at that time was essentially an island continent, how do scientists think they got there?

Question 51

Why is the Fayum depression in Egypt such an important site for understanding the origin and diversification of anthropoid primates?

Question 52

Parapithecids are

A)ancestral to all cattarhines.
B)found only in Asia.
C)ancestral to anthropoids.
D)found only in North America.