Prosimians {prosimian}| include tarsiers, bush babies, lorises, lemurs, and galagos. They are small, live in fine-branch niches, eat fruit and/or insects, have short muzzles and short noses, have fingernails, have large and widely spaced eyes, and have more than 32 teeth.
smell
They have scent glands, like most primitive mammals, and use scent-marking behaviors for social communication.
vision
Optic tectums receive only from visual-field left or right half, whereas in lower mammals optic tectums receive from left and right.
evolution
Prosimians developed from primitive insectivores.
First primate family {Strepsirhines} includes lorises, lemurs, and galagos but not bush babies or tarsiers. They have furless, moist, mucous tissue with cleft down middle between upper lip and nostrils {rhinarium, Strepsirhines}, as in most mammals. They have simple social organization. In Strepsirhines and primitive mammals, main input to amygdala is from olfactory bulb.
Second primate family {Haplorhines} includes tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans. It has furry rhinarium {rhinarium, Haplorhines} and movable upper lip for facial expressions. It uses gestures and has complex social organization. In Haplorhines, main input to amygdala is from visual inferotemporal cortex.
moist nose {bush baby}.
Madagascar, arboreal, mostly nocturnal {lemur} (Lemuridae).
nocturnal, Indonesia, dry nose {tarsier}.
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Date Modified: 2022.0225