As a kid, we’re always told we have an inner monkey, a language that persists in everyday idioms. Monkeying around, monkey business, cheeky monkey, all of these terms reference our ancestral history, and highlight our unique similarities to our closest evolutionary relatives. Episode three of Your Inner Fish, “Your Inner Monkey”, details these similarities, and how we are connected through our evolutionary biology, DNA, and anatomy. Two of the most striking and interesting pieces of evidence that the host of this episode, Neil Shubin, explores are the fine branch niche and the evolutionary advantage that comes with increased color vision. These two traits have the most significant connection to our primate ancestors. Tree branches sit high…show more content… In order to live up to the trees, early primates developed hands that had longer fingers, tails that helped them balance, and thumbs that could appose the hand and wrap around branches. These specific traits are one of the defining characteristics of primates, and connect humans back to our common monkey ancestor. This niche continues to shape the anatomy and behaviors of modern primates and exists not just as relics of our evolutionary past, but as a reminder of our connection to many living species today. As primates began to evolve and develop, challenges arose in their tree canopies and competition became fierce. Neil Shubin discusses how our ancestors began to evolve to have adaptations other than just opposable thumbs and long fingers to give them an advantage in the trees. Our early primate ancestors only had two types of opsins (a type of membrane protein that acts as a light sensor), not allowing them to see the full visible color spectrum. Because of this, they were unable to differentiate between shades of red and green. Shubin discusses how somewhere along the line, one of our opsins duplicated and slightly mutated to a third color
