April 3 (Thursday) at 11:15 AM – Lecture on „Primate Evolution” at ŽŪA III Building (Academy, Universiteto St. 10-159).
The primates are an ancient diverse order whose members consist of mouse lemurs who fit in the palm of one’s hand to the mighty adult male gorillas who may weigh over 500 pounds.
The characteristics important in primate evolution over the millenia ultimately played a role in human dominance over the earth. The evolution of colour vision and visual acuity, grasping fingers, emancipation of the forelimbs, intense sociality, and enlargement of the brain were shaped by climatic and ecological changes producing modern humans, apes, and monkeys as well as the surviving prosimians and tarsiers. The paradox of the primate order is that many of the ancient groups who first evolved eons ago still have surviving descendants, structural ancestors who still persist today from forty million years ago.