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Primates Essay

Decent Essays

There are many species that belong as a part of the Primates; not only in today’s world, but also in a world before Homo Sapiens became advanced enough to be able to differentiate anthropomorphic traits in other species. To identify these species, specific analyses of a wide variety of characteristics had to occur. One of these characteristics being detention, or “the sizes, shapes, and number of an animal’s teeth” (Lavenda and Schultz 100). Looking at skulls of Primates that are no longer around, or maybe even still existing, can sometimes be hard to distinguish; at least if you are still learning about the shapes and sizes of each species. When unsure of which group the skull of a Primate belongs to, looking at the number and shapes of …show more content…

However, when looking at their skulls, it was harder than expected. New World monkeys have “3 premolars and 2 or 3 molars” (O’Neil, paragraph 4). The last molar can sometimes be particularly small, or even nonexistent (Lavenda and Schultz, pg 103, Figure 4.6). We noticed that the New World monkey that we examined in class had only 2 molars, and we could clearly identify the 3 premolars. This is different from Old World monkeys, considering they “have 2 premolars and 3 molars” (O’Neil, paragraph 4). It was harder to differentiate the premolars from the molars of the Old World monkey, because most all of their molars were dull. The premolars on the New World monkey were sharper, so that made it a bit easier to distinguish premolars from molars, and therefore easier to differentiate Old World from New World. Through our thorough examination of the detention of the New and Old World monkey, we were able to conclude the true identity of the skulls. Anthropoids also include apes and homos, which differentiate even further from New and Old World monkeys in terms of detention. Apes, australopithecines, and homos still have 2 premolars and 3 molars, however the cusps on the molars are what is different. Homo, australopithecines, and apes have the “characteristic Y-5 pattern” (Lavenda and Schultz, pg.114), which indicates 5 cusp molars. The bilophodont pattern is a characteristic of Old World

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