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BIO113 Studying Mammals Unit 9: The Social Climbers - OPEN University
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Open University
S182_9 10 Hours
Introductory
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Course Description
In this unit we will focus on the Anthropoidea, a
suborder of primates that includes monkeys, apes and humans. We will
concentrate our attention here primarily on monkeys. Colour vision, a
large brain and intelligence are of great importance in the lives of
anthropoids, enabling them to eat foods inaccessible to many other
animals and to exploit social situations. In this unit, we will be
looking at characteristics of primates that differ, or are enhanced, in
anthropoids and discussing these attributes in relation to the evolution
of the large anthropoid brain and the evolution of humans.
This is the ninth in a series of units about
studying mammals. To get the most from these units, you will need access
to a copy of The Life of Mammals (2002) by David
Attenborough, BBC Books (ISBN 0563534230), and The Life of Mammals (2002) on DVD, which
contains the associated series of ten BBC TV programmes. OpenLearn unit S182_8 Studying mammals: life in the trees
contains samples from the DVD set. You should begin each unit by
watching the relevant TV programme on the DVD and reading the
corresponding chapter in The Life of Mammals. You will be asked
to rewatch specific sequences from the programme as you work through the
unit.
By the end of this unit you
should be able to:
- identify the
charactistics of primates and explain the main differences between the
two suborders, prosimians and anthropoids;
- describe the detection of colour and estimation of
distance in primates and explain the advantages of stereoscopic
trichromatic vision;
- discuss the
various types of communication seen in anthropoids and explain how
playback experiments contribute to understanding vocal communication;
- compare and contrast adaptations in primates with
adaptations in other mammals;
- compare
and contrast how species reduce the risk of predation and avoid
competition with other species;
- classify
social structures of groups of monkeys and draw schematic diagrams to
represent the structures;
- explain the
advantages of multiple mating by females and the consequences for the
behaviour of males;
- discuss the
importance of coalitions and friendships in primate societies;
- discuss the evidence for monkey intelligence and the
factors thought to be driving forces in the evolution of the monkey
brain.
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Introduction
 Introduction
Resource- In this unit we will focus on the
Anthropoidea, a suborder of primates that includes monkeys, apes and
humans. We will concentrate our attention here primarily on monkeys.
Colour vision, a large brain...
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1 The anthropoids
- 1 The anthropoids Resource
- As you work through this unit you
will come across boxes, like this one, which give you advice about the
study skills that you will be developing as you progress through the
unit. To avoid breaking up...
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2 Who are the anthropoids?
- 2 Who are the anthropoids? Resource
- As you know, the suborder
Anthropoidea includes monkeys, apes and humans. You will be aware from
reading LoM that taxonomists group monkeys according to the shape of
their nose: Old World monkeys are catarrhines...
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3 How do anthropoids differ from prosimians?
- 3.1 Diurnal living Resource
- In three particular respects,
anthropoids have evolved features that have given them a competitive
edge over other animals, especially prosimian primates. They have a
diurnal instead of a nocturnal pattern...
- 3.2 Colour vision Resource
- DA stresses that colour vision is
very important in primates, not only because colour is used ‘in sexual
displays’ such as advertising a female's receptiveness to mating [p.
275], but also to identify...
- 3.3 Seeing red Resource
- Watch the TV programme from
20.37–24.06 and reread LoM pp. 247–248 and 255. Write a paragraph of
about 120 words explaining why the inability to detect the colour red
would disadvantage anthropoid primates....
- 3.4 Stereoscopic vision Resource
- DA explains that ancestral monkeys
had to ‘decide whether a branch was within reach of a stretch or a jump
– or beyond either’ [p.248]. Individuals that were able to judge
distances between themselves...
- 3.5 Communication Resource
- Compared with many other mammals,
primates have a rich repertoire of communication skills, which I'll be
looking at in more detail in this section.
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4 Living in a society
- 4.1 Group size and collaboration Resource
- This section requires you to
interpret the data presented in Figures 5 and 6. Figure 5 consists of
two bar charts showing (a) the mean day range and (b) the weekly home
range for a large and a small group...
- 4.2 Social dynamics Resource
- Yet another type of diagram is
given in this section. Take a preliminary look at Figure 7, which is a
way of illustrating the relationships between individual primates and
groups of primates. Some specialist...
- 4.3 Hierarchies within groups Resource
- Within multimale-multifemale
groups of the type portrayed in Figure 7f, complex social relationships
exist. These animals are ‘forced together’ to defend resources and to
avoid predation, but competition...
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5 The primate brain
- 5.1 The neocortex Resource
- Throughout LoM Chapter 9 and the
TV programme, DA has referred to the large brain of monkeys and to their
intelligence. Humans are the most intelligent of the anthropoid
species, but evidence for non-human...
- 5.2 Social and ecological factors Resource
- Researchers think that the
increase in creative thinking capacity was driven by group living
because, in primates, increasing neocortex size is linked to increasing
group size. We know that, even if there...
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6 Reflections
- 6 Reflections Resource
- DA opens the TV programme by
stating that ‘monkeys and apes have the richest social life of all
mammals’. I have explored the importance of colour vision in the
interactions between individuals and discussed...
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References and Acknowledgements
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There are currently no items in this folder.
Copyright 2007,
by the Contributing Authors.
Cite/attribute Resource.
administrator. (2010, January 30). BIO113 Studying Mammals Unit 9: The Social Climbers - OPEN University. Retrieved September 04, 2010, from Free University Courses OCW Courses OpenCourseWare Freeversity Foundation Web site: http://www.freeversity.org/science-and-mathematics/biology/bio113-studying-mammals-unit-9-the-social-climbers-open-university.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License
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