PROSIMIANS

=Prosimians= Prosimians (meaning before apes) were the first group of primates that diverged from a common mammalian ancestor. This group includes lemurs, lorises and tarsiers. They have very ‘dog like’ features such as a face that is completely covered with fur, whiskers, larger moveable ears and a snout (prognathism) that has a patch of moist naked skin at the end (rhinarium). Many of these ‘dog like’ features correspond to the prosimians much greater reliance on their sense of smell. In fact if we compare their brains with other primates we find that they have a much larger olfactory (smell) region and a much smaller visual region and are smaller on the whole. Prosimians tend to be nocturnal and have good night vision but lack the ability to see things in detail and do not have colour vision. While they have forward facing eyes for depth perception, the region of overlap is smaller than in monkeys and apes. '''Summary''': *'''Nocturnal''' *'''Arboreal''' (lives in trees) *'''Quadrapedal''' (walk on all fours) *'''Hands instead of paws''' *'''Nails not claws'''' *'''‘Dog like’ features'''' (prognathism, face covered with fur, rhinarium) *'''Small brain''' (with larger olfactory region) *'''Forward facing eyes''' *'''Whiskers & large ears''' (freely moveable)[image:http://i.imgur.com/UOLbEZ2l.png]