When did the first erect primate appear?

In 1959, the discovery of the skulls of creatures belonging to the same family of humanoids discovered by Professor Dart in Africa shocked the world.

In 1960, another prehistoric skull was discovered – part of the skull and chin – along with hewn stone tools. A year later, the skeleton of an erect man, an even more advanced animal, was discovered, and it was identified as the first person to use fire. Later, it was identified as the same species as the Javanese ape and the Peking man, but it was 500,000 years earlier.

In December 1970, two young South African archaeologists, Edan Bosher and Peter Beaumont, excavated about 300,000 blackened animal bones from underground caves. The charcoal they extracted from an ash-filled alleyway has been proven to be at least 50,000 years old. Some stone tools and ochre laid on the ground allow one to infer this:

This large cave was inhabited as early as 100,000 years ago. This is much earlier than the Zhoukoudian Caves in Beijing and the Caves in Java.

In the early 70s of the 20th century, Richard Leakey and others discovered the bones of ape-man 2.8 million years ago in Kenya. Their shape is very similar to that of modern humans. This momentous discovery strongly negates the original timeline of human evolution – that the first upright primate appeared about 1 million years ago.

In 1975, teeth and jawbones of prehistoric humans were found in Tanzania, and they were found to be the remains of ape-man 3.75 million years ago. This is millions of years earlier than Peking Man and Javanese Man.

Faced with a series of major new archaeological discoveries, anthropologists have had to come to the preliminary conclusion that humans originated in Africa, not Asia. At this point, it seems that the conclusion has been made about the origin of human beings, but it is difficult to say whether there will be new archaeological discoveries, because there are still many things that human beings need to know about the unknown world.

Jia Tanchun, Ai Guan, Cui Mo, Xiao Chan.

The earliest primates have long since become extinct. It can only be said that the earliest primates have similarities with some of the monkeys that exist.

At present, there is a great deal of controversy about the earliest primates. It is generally believed that primates have their orbits facing forward, the orbital space is narrow, the toes (fingers) of the hands and feet are separated, the thumbs are flexible, and most of them can be held opposite to other toes (fingers); May be arboreal, feeding on insects and plant flowers, fruits, and young twigs and leaves.

If one had to compare it with the extant monkeys, the earliest primates had both tarsier characteristics and resemblance to lemurs, and closer to lemurs. Tarsiers and lemurs are among the most primitive primates in existence.

It is believed that the earliest primate found so far may be the fossil of the "Pulgatori monkey" found in the United States. This species appeared from the end of the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic to the early Cenozoic era, and is about 65 million years old. It resembles a mouse in appearance and size.

Pulgattori monkey.

Primates generally refer to primates.

Primates (scientific name: primates) is a family of mammals, with more than 514 species in 78 genera and 16 families in 2 suborders. Primates vary greatly in size, from the lemur weighing only 30 grams to the eastern gorilla weighing up to 200 kilograms.

The brain is well developed; orbits facing anteriorly, orbital spacing narrow; The toes (fingers) of the hands and feet are separated, and the thumbs are flexible, and most of them can be held opposite to the other toes (fingers).

Social behaviour related to primates

Primates live and migrate in groups. Its size varies depending on the species. In a group, there is an adult male who is the leader of the entire group.

Humans and other primates are not only very similar in physical characteristics, but also in social behavior. It is generally believed that this is mainly due to the fact that their brains are well developed, so they also behave in a more complex way than other animals.

The above content refers to Encyclopedia - Primates.

Primates generally refer to primates.

Primates are currently the highest group of the animal kingdom, mainly distributed in the warm regions of the world. This type of animal has a well-developed brain, the eye sockets are facing forward, the orbital space is narrow, the toes (fingers) of the hands and feet are separated, the thumbs are flexible, and most of them can be held opposite to other toes (fingers). In addition to humans, the largest is the gorilla, and the smallest is the marmoset.