Question

Your classmate, whose part-time job entails reorganizing the paleoanthropology lab on campus, asks you to take a look at a skeleton that she thinks is that of a primate. After noting the absence of a postorbital bar, nails, and an opposable thumb, what would be a valid statement to make?

Answer 1

After noting the absence of a postorbital bar, nails, and an opposable thumb, a valid statement to make is that the skeleton is not of a primate. It is the skeleton of a plesiadapiform. Dermoptera and the primates emerged within this plesiadapiforms. Besides, Primates had a skull bounded by a postorbital bar and hands and feet for grasping, features that plesiadapiforms lacked.