Question

You are an expert paleontologist reviewing the work of Professor Bonefinder, who recently discovered the remains of a primate fossil from South America. The fossil has a long snout, a tail, and large orbits that face toward the side and are only partially enclosed. The fossil has been securely dated to about 30 mya. Bonefinder concluded that this fossil is a hominoid. Do you think Professor Bonefinder’s analysis is correct? Explain your evaluation.

Answer 1

Answer:

The professor Bonefinder has made a mistake.

Explanation:

I't is true the Hominoid had a long snout, a large orbits that are partially enclosed, but they have no tail. This point is really critical because the morphology of an species is really important. The taxonomists use the information that morphology gave for many years to identify species, nowadays with molecular techniques some of those species are pulled apart, but the important matter is that hominoids had no tail.

So the professor Bonefinder analysis is incorrect because the hominoids have no tail.