Why do anthropologists study non-human primates?

Answer 1

Physical Anthropologists study non-human primates because they serve as a window into the past to provide an idea of what life may have been like for our earliest human ancestors. By analyzing the behaviors and body structures of primates, we can see how these behaviors & anatomy evolved over time. For example, by studying the mating habits of non-human primates, we see the correlation between canine tooth size and mate guarding. Species in which males have large canines tend to exhibit male competition for mates and will guard (restrict access) to the females with which they mate; males with small canines (or with no discernible difference in canine size between the sexes) tend not to mate guard.