Primate questions?

Question

How are they different from other mammals biologically and socially? Why are non-human primates used as models for early human behavior and adaptations?

Answer 1

That's done in order to understand the 90% of people who act like primates and have the legal rights of full-fledged humans.

Answer 2

I see that Mel is a top contributor but I must disagree with his statement.

The so called "missing link" business is in no way shape or form a..."Theory"! It does not qualify as theory and neve will.

Answer 3

this is how the course of academic  research has taken its course.  many assumptions/presuppositions were made by the early school of academics.  we r taking off from where they left off.  the classic is the missing link theory. albeit its still a theory and some gesticulations/expectations.

  when we learn more of other anthropological/ sociology/ spirituality things, we may be able to discern that there is perhaps a parallel line and not one where we evolve from the great apes.  even if we r atheists, we cannot deny that we r diff fr the primates.  they remain where they were and yet we evolved.  how come?   perhaps had anthropology traced back from our present state backwards we would instead be tracing the parallel.   its  difficult to have a new mindset/mental model but if u r an academic of  some standing u shld enter a brave new world of research.  

we hop u can extrapolate your answer....

organs, skin tissue, brain size, skeletal sys,  ways of eating/hunting/gathering food etc r the main diff for various categories of living things

Answer 4

They aren't much different from some other animals but they are closer to humans.  The closest are chimpanzees.  It is logical to assume that we might have some things in common with those animals that shared a common ancestor as recently as 5 million years ago.  Some behaviors might even trace their origins back to monkeys or the ancestors of modern monkeys.  Things that are shared likely have ancient origins.  Examples include yawning, dreaming, social interactions, hunting, communication, expressions of emotions and things like that.

Answer 5

(Actually humans are primates.)

Primates have opposable thumbs, although this isn't solely a primate trait. Opossums also have them and they are marsupials (i.e. have pouches for carrying important items).

Primates also have fingernails, instead of claws. I don't know if any other animal has this trait.

We study non-human primates such as the chimpanzee and the bonobo because they are the closest species to us. By studying them we can get some idea of how humans behaved very early on, e.g. how we learnt how to use tools and how we behaved socially.