3.5 Assignment: Primate Taxonomy and Traits

For this assignment, you will have been assigned two primate species, one Strepsirrhine and one Haplorhine.  You can find your two species listed with your name at the bottom of this assignment.  You will download and fill out the Primate Taxonomy Worksheet 

with information about each of your species.  The worksheet is a Microsoft Word document and you will need to have Word installed on your computer to complete this assignment.  If you do not have Microsoft Word, you can install Microsoft Office (which includes Word) for free here.

The best way to approach this assignment is to answer the questions on the worksheet in order.  The first two pages of the worksheet require you to fill out information about each of your species, its place in the primate order, and its geographic range, diet, and behavior. You must provide detailed information for these questions. Insufficient detail will result in the loss of points. The last page of the assignment presents you with a list of traits and asks you to identify whether your species has each of the traits.  If your species has a trait on the list, you place an "x" in the checkbox, if it does not, you leave it blank. Whether or not your species has many of these traits will be determined by their place in the primate order because, as our textbook explained and the videos provided above reviewed, the traits follow a taxonomic pattern within the order. If you know the pattern and you know your primates’ place in the order, it will help you answer the questions correctly.  Information about all of the species assigned can be found in The Pictorial Guide to Living Primates

 by Noel Rowe– each species has a profile with an image and information.  Some additional online sources will help you to find information about your species.  These include Primate Info Net (Links to an external site.), the Living Primates page from the Knowledge Project (Links to an external site.), and Palomar College’s Primates website (Links to an external site.).

One final thing: the second main assignment in this module, your Primate Tinder discussion-assignment, requires you to create a dating profile for one of your two species (you get to choose which one).  Feel free to skip ahead look at that assignment prompt now, so you can know what to be looking for as you locate sources, gather information, and complete this first assignment.

Once you have provided the required information on your primate worksheet, you should save your form and upload and submit it by the assignment deadline.