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8.6: Key Terms

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    Key Terms

    Adapoidea: Order: Primates. One of the earliest groups of euprimates (true primates; earliest records from the early Eocene).

    Anthropoids: Group containing monkeys and apes, including humans.

    Auditory bulla: The rounded bony floor of the middle ear cavity.

    Bilophodonty: Dental condition in which the cusps of molar teeth form ridges (or lophs) separated from each other by valleys (seen, e.g., in modern Old World monkeys).

    Catarrhines: Order: Primates; Suborder: Anthropoidea; Infraorder: Catarrhini. Group containing Old World monkeys and apes, including humans.

    Clade: Group containing all of the descendants of a single ancestor. A portion of a phylogenetic tree represented as a bifurcation (node) in a lineage and all of the branches leading forward in time from that bifurcation.

    Convergent evolution: The independent evolution of a morphological feature in animals not closely related (e.g., wings in birds and bats).

    Crown group: Smallest monophyletic group (clade) containing a specified set of extant taxa and all descendants of their last common ancestor.

    Diagnosis: The features that allow you to recognize a group.

    Diastema: Space between adjacent teeth.

    Diffuse coevolution: The ecological interaction between whole groups of species (e.g., primates) with whole groups of other species (e.g., fruiting trees).

    Ectotympanic: Bony ring or tube that holds the tympanic membrane (eardrum).

    Euprimates: Order: Primates. True primates or primates of modern aspect.

    Haplorhines: Group containing catarrhines, platyrrhines, and tarsiers.

    Hominins: Modern humans and any extinct relatives more closely related to us than to chimpanzees.

    Mandibular symphysis: Fibrocartilaginous joint between the left and right mandibular segments, located in the midline of the body.

    Old World: Africa and Eurasia.

    Omomyoidea: Order: Primates; Superfamily: Omomyoidea. One of the earliest groups of euprimates (true primates; earliest record in the early Eocene).

    Petrosal bone: Petrous portion of the temporal bone. It houses the inner ear apparatus, among other things.

    Plagiaulacoid: Dental condition where at least one of the lower cheek-teeth (molars or premolars) is a laterally compressed blade.

    Platyrrhines: Order: Primates; Suborder: Anthropoidea; Infraorder: Platyrrhini. Group containing New World monkeys.

    Plesiadapiforms: Order: Plesiadapiformes. Archaic primates or primate-like placental mammals (Early Paleocene–Late Eocene).

    Stem: Taxa are basal to a given crown group but are more closely related to the crown group than to the closest living sister taxon of the crown group.

    Strepsirrhines: Order: Primates; Suborder: Stresirrhini. Group containing lemurs, lorises, and galagos (does not include tarsiers).

    Toothcomb: Dental condition found in modern strepsirrhines in which the lower incisors and canines are laterally compressed and protrude forward at a nearly horizontal inclination. This structure is used in grooming.


    This page titled 8.6: Key Terms was last modified on Sun, 30 Apr 2023 17:13:36 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Beth Shook, Katie Nelson, Kelsie Aguilera, and Lara Braff, Eds. (Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.