Chapter 34b:

Vertebrates

(mammals)

Mam

mal

iaThough mammals

predate the dinosaurs, it was only once the

dinosaurs were mostly gone that the mammal

adaptive radiation began in earnest

The defining features of extant mammals are their

hair, mammary glands, larger brains,

differentiated teeth, modified jaws, etc.

The mammal lineage

predates the mammals with the

synapsids: the mammal-like reptiles

Var

ious

Syn

apsi

ds

Mam

mal

s: M

onot

rem

es

Mon

otre

me:

Ech

idna

Mon

otre

me:

Pla

typu

s

Duck-billed platypuses are aquatic so keep their eggs

warm in burrows until hatching

Mam

mal

s: M

arsu

pial

s

Exam

ples

of M

arsu

pial

s

Mam

mal

s: E

uthe

rians

Eutherians are the placental mammals, i.e., the majority of

mammals are eutherians

Mam

mal

s: P

rimat

es

The primates inhabit a branch of the mammalian phylogeny also occupied by the rodents

Ord

er P

rimat

esThe

anthropoids include the monkeys, the apes,

and us

Variety of

primate hands

Prosimians

Prim

ates

Primates possess numerous adaptations that allow rapid movement through trees

• Remember all the characteristics of primates we talked about! (AND DISTINGUISH THEM FROM HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS)

Pros

imia

n: A

Lem

ur

Monkeys are Anthropoids

Ord

er P

rimat

es

The hominoids include the apes and us

Known or Suspect Hominids

Hominids (by your text) are more closely morphologically similar to us than they are to

chimpanzees

Sim

plifi

ed T

ree

Aust

ralo

pith

icus

afa

rens

is

Hom

o ha

bilis

Hom

o er

ectu

s H. erectus lived from approximately 1.8 to 0.5

million years ago and perhaps even longer H. erectus was the most successful of the the

genus Homo lineages in terms of time on Earth H. erectus spread her kind throughout the old

world

Pan H. erectus

H. sapiensHomo

Hom

o er

ectu

s