A Life In The Trees Analysis

Reaction to "A Life in the Trees"
In the Video "A Life in the Trees", narrated by David Attenborough many of the characteristics of primates that we have been talking about in class were highlighted. As we talked about in class, primates have two major specializations. Forward facing eyes and hands with opposable thumbs. The video mostly focused on Lemurs, monkeys, and apes. It was clear that, while each one of these groups of primates has those same two specializations, they all use them in slightly different ways, depending on where they evolved.
The first thing that caught my attention was how each primate evolved to fit its environment. For example, Ring-tailed lemurs, which live exclusively on Madagascar, are both arboreal and terrestrial meaning their environment must have plentiful forests. I thought it was very interesting when the troop of lemurs went to the stream to drink and used their tails as a signal other members of the troop. I had never heard of lemurs using their tails for this purpose before. Sifakas lemurs also only live on Madagascar, but these lemurs developed longer

back legs that make them incredible at jumping from tree to tree. However, it makes it impossible for them to walk on the ground and instead they must jump. I was curious why the Ringtail lemurs evolved to walk on the ground while Sifakas didn't. I believe it is because they developed in different parts of the island, and in the part the Sifakas evolved in it was advantageous to be able to jump and in the part the Ringtails evolved in to was advantageous to be able to walk on the ground. When the video talked about primates who live in Africa, it was clear that those primates evolved for a less wooded area. I thought it was interesting that Vervets moved to being almost completely terrestrial creatures and no longer have a grasping tail. Baboons have also evolved to live primarily on the ground and eat lizards, rodents, and other monkeys. I think that how these different primates developed to their geographical locations is a prime example of evolution.
The second thing that caught my attention was how different primates use their forward facing eyes and opposable thumbs.

Each primate the video showed looked very humanoid to me, and it struck me that could just as easily be us swinging from trees right now. When they were showing footage of the Gibbons I was amazed at how well they could jump. It reminded me of what we talked about in class about primates forward facing eyes giving them 3-D vision. There is no was the Gibbons could jump and land as well as they do without incredible depth perception, gained through forward facing eyes. Every primate in the video used their hands and opposable thumbs to grasp limbs and catch and eat food. The young also used their hands and primal grasping reflex to cling to their parents. It was fascinating to see real examples of the concepts we learned about in

class.
I found this video very interesting. It highlighted, enhanced and reinforced the concepts we learned in class. In particular it showed how different primates evolved to fit the environment they live in and how they use their forward facing eyes and strong hands to their best advantage. I thought the video was informative and helped me to better understand concepts we learned in class, and of course David Attenborough voice is delightful.