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Virtual Explorations
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Visit our textbook-specific Online Learning Center Web site at www.mhhe.com/relethford8e to access the exercises that follow.

  1. Our Primate Origins: An Introduction

    2. http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/ha/primate.html.
    The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History "Human Origins Program: In Search of What Makes Us Human" Web site offers a rich assortment of valuable and informative links. Click on the "Our Primate Origins: An Introduction" link and read the title page information.

    Now follow the links:
    Eocene http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/faq/gt/cenozoic/eocene.htm
    Oligocene http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/faq/gt/cenozoic/oligocene.htm
    Miocene http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/faq/gt/cenozoic/miocene.htm
    Pliocene http://www.mnh.si.edu/anthro/humanorigins/faq/gt/cenozoic/pliocene.htm

    Make a brief timeline to show the general dates for these four epochs. Now mark the following events on your timeline:

    • Appearance of the first primates with modern primate characteristics (grasping hands and feet, nails, reliance on vision)
    • Arrival of primates in South America
    • Appearance of ancestors of Old World monkeys and apes
    • Evolutionary split between Old World monkeys and apes
    • Diversification of apes
    • Appearance of common ancestor of chimps and humans
    • Appearance of bipedal apes

  2. Our Early Kin Lived in Trees

    3. Read "Fossil Implies Our Early Kin Lived in Trees" from National Geographic News (2002): http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1121_021121_PrimateOrigins.html.

    • How long ago did Carpolestes simpsoni live?
    • Is it classified as a primate, a nonprimate mammal, or a transitional animal in primate evolution? Where has it been placed on the human evolutionary tree?

  3. Did Humans Evolve?

    4. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/11/2/e_s_5.html.
    Watch the video Did Humans Evolve? (5 minutes 33 seconds) from the PBS Evolution Web site.
    • How are humans related to chimps? Are humans descended from chimps, gorillas, or orangutans, or none of these?
    • How long ago did apes and humans share a common ancestor? Might this chronology change in the future, or is this an established fact?
    • What kind of evidence best helps us understand the relationship between humans and other apes, fossil evidence or molecular evidence? Which seems more convincing to you? Are they complementary?





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