http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/hominids/2012/10/why-are-humans-primates/ Meet the members of the tangled human family tree Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:56:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/hominids/2012/10/why-are-humans-primates/#comment-910 Thom McCann Wed, 31 Oct 2012 04:24:55 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/hominids/?p=2218#comment-910 This title is one of the most asinine I have ever seen! This title is one of the most asinine I have ever seen!

]]> http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/hominids/2012/10/why-are-humans-primates/#comment-909 Erin Wayman Mon, 29 Oct 2012 17:23:05 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/hominids/?p=2218#comment-909 Dana, you're right. Primates didn't evolve good eye sight or dexterous hands in order to catch prey or climb trees. The idea is if early primates were eating insects, for example, then those individuals in a population with slightly better eyesight might survive better and reproduce more than individuals with poorer eyesight. And over time, better eyesight would spread throughout the population. So the idea is that because these animals were arboreal or insectivorous, certain traits were selected. Dana, you’re right. Primates didn’t evolve good eye sight or dexterous hands in order to catch prey or climb trees. The idea is if early primates were eating insects, for example, then those individuals in a population with slightly better eyesight might survive better and reproduce more than individuals with poorer eyesight. And over time, better eyesight would spread throughout the population. So the idea is that because these animals were arboreal or insectivorous, certain traits were selected.

]]> http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/hominids/2012/10/why-are-humans-primates/#comment-908 Dana Garcia Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:46:15 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/hominids/?p=2218#comment-908 I'm not an evolutionary biologist, but isn't the argument that early primates might have been insect eaters and needed good vision an eyesight to quick hands to grab prey teleologic or out of order? They might've been able to grab prey because they had those characters, but they didn't evolve those characters so they could perform that function. I’m not an evolutionary biologist, but isn’t the argument that early primates might have been insect eaters and needed good vision an eyesight to quick hands to grab prey teleologic or out of order? They might’ve been able to grab prey because they had those characters, but they didn’t evolve those characters so they could perform that function.

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