Anth 171: MONKEYS AND APES
All class materials are
posted on Blackboard
Professor: Dr. Frances White
Office: 352 Condon Hall
Telephone: 346-5278
E-mail: fwhite@uoregon.edu PLEASE use Anth 171 in the subject of your e-mail to help me filter your message for my attention
Course syllabus and statement of course policies:
This course examines our closest relatives, the Primates (prosimians, monkeys and apes) in an evolutionary context. Humans are more closely related to nonhuman primates than they are to any other group of animals. We share in common with them an array of important adaptive features such as high intelligence, complex communication systems, diverse feeding adaptations and diets, lengthened periods of infant attachment, strong mother-infant bonds, and a reliance on social groups. Understanding of the ecology, behavior, and evolution of non-human primates helps anthropologists to identify and interpret those features that unite us with the Primate Order. Throughout this course, we will look at evolutionary features that define and shape the Order Primates. We will also learn the taxonomy and evolutionary history of the primates, and evaluate the ways in which anatomy and ecology shape primate behavior. Lectures will include information from studies of primates in their natural habitats, and discussions will be oriented to both evolutionary and ecological perspectives.
Although this is a science course, I do not assume that you have a rigorous scientific background but that this class will be an important part of your education to understand scientific thinking and hypothesis testing. My aim is to present the scientific foundations of this course in a way that will give you an intuitive understanding that will help you look critically at primate diversity from an evolutionary perspective. We will all need, however, a common language and some scientific terminology and definitions will be essential, but it is most important that you understand and see how to apply the concepts.
This course is divided into three sections:
- Section 1 runs from the start of the course to first midterm and will examine the theory of evolution, adaptation and the concept of adaptive radiations, as applied to primates. During this time, discussion sections will work on the scientific method and how to generate and test hypotheses and the taxonomy and biogeography of primates.
- Section 2 begins after the first midterm and runs to the second midterm exam. In this section will be examine the evolutionary morphology, ecological adaptations, and reproduction in primates.
- Section 3 starts after the second midterm and goes to the end of the class. During this time we will look at the evolution of primate behavior and intelligence and the importance of primates in ecological communities. We will end by discussing the relevance of primate studies to understanding humans.
Lab goals: The laboratory sections are a critical part of the course and are designed to develop the important practical skills of observing, measuring, recording, and interpreting scientific data. Through a series of laboratory exercises, these labs will teach you the scientific method and how to write a lab report, as well as provide invaluable hands-on experience handling primate material and collecting and analyzing data.
Required reading materials:
The
assigned readings will be covered in exams.
Grading: Your grade will be based on: 2 multiple-choice midterm exams, lab section attendance, lab section reports (completed and handed in during labs), and a multiple-choice final exam. All exams will cover material from lectures (including the videos), the lab sections, and assigned readings.
Schedule of classes
and reading assignments:
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Week/ Lecture |
Lecture outline and
schedule |
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LABS: |
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Week 1 Lecture 1 |
Introduction. |
EEP Ch 3 Genetics and Evolution |
Hypothesis testing and statistical analysis |
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Week 1 Lecture 2 |
How does variation and speciation into radiations occur? |
EEP Ch 3 Genetics and Evolution |
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Week 2 Lecture 3 |
Primate Biodiversity and Adaptive Radiations |
EEP CH 4 The Living Primates |
Primate anatomy, taxonomy and biogeography |
EEP CH 4 The Living Primates |
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Week 2 Lecture 4 |
Primate Evolutionary Trends |
EEP CH 4 The Living Primates |
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Week 3 Lecture 5 |
MIDTERM 1 (in class, multiple choice) |
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Review Midterm 1 results |
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Week 3 Lecture 6 |
Video: Life in
the trees
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Week 4 Lecture 7 |
Primate Habitats |
Fl Chapter 3 Primate Lives pp 47-55 |
Skulls and teeth |
Fl Ch 2 The Primate Body pp 11-27 |
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Week 4 Lecture 8 |
EEP Ch 5 Primate Evolution: from early primates to hominoids |
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Week 5 Lecture 9 |
Primate foods |
FL Ch 2 The Primate Body pp 55-57 |
Locomotor morphology |
Fl Ch 2 The Primate Body pp 27-36 Fl Chapter 3 Primate Lives pp 57-59 |
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Week 5 Lecture 10 |
Primate feeding and foraging |
Fl Ch 2 The Primate Body pp 36-39 |
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Week 6 Lecture 11 |
Reproduction and development |
Fl Ch 2 The Primate Body pp 39-43 |
Reproduction lab |
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Week 6 Lecture 12 |
Primate populations |
FL Ch 3 Primate Lives pp 67-73, Fr Ch 48 Population Ecology |
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Week 7 Lecture 13 |
MIDTERM 2 (in class, multiple choice)
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Review Midterm 2 results |
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Week 7 Lecture 14 |
Video: Life of
Mammals; the social climbers
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Week 8 Lecture 15 |
Evolution of Primate Social Groups |
FL Ch 3 Primate Lives pp 59-67 |
Baboon behavior lab |
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Week 8 Lecture 16 |
Video: Ai The chimpanzee mind |
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Week 9 Lecture 17 |
Primate communication |
EA Sound on the Rebound |
Primate Communication / Intelligence lab |
EA Machiavellian Intelligence EA Cultural Panthropology |
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Week 9 Lecture 18 |
Intelligence, tool use, and culture in primates |
EA Machiavellian Intelligence EA Cultural Panthropology |
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Week 10 Lecture 19 |
Communities and conservation |
Fr Ch 50 Community Ecology, Fr Ch 51 Ecosystems |
Primates today - conservation |
Fr Ch 52 Biodiversity and Conservation |
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Week 7 Lecture 20 |
Understanding humans |
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Key to readings: Chapters from custom text: EEP = Ember, Ember and Peregrine, Fl = Fleagle, Fr =
Freeman, EA = Evolutionary Anthropology