Primates Studies In Adaptation And Variability

A progress report that outlines the kinds of studies of primate behavior and variability that still need to be made. Written by eminent authorities in the fields of anthropology, psychology, zoology, and psychiatry, the selections in this volume concern primate social behavior, adaptation, and variation.

This book concerns the various ways that primates respond to environmental change. By studying these patterns of responsiveness we not only gain useful knowledge about the structural, physiological and behavioural propensities of different species, but also acquire important information relating to issues of contemporary concern, such as conservation and the management of animals in the wild as well as in various forms of captivity. For example, there is growing concern among biologists and conser vationists about the influence of habitat destruction, such as logging, on the fitness and survival of wild primates. There is also increased awareness of the need to improve the care of primates in zoos and laboratories, including the enrichment of captive environments. Further, because an increasing number of primate species are becom ing endangered, knowledge of their responsiveness to new environ ments is an essential requirement for effective breeding programmes in captivity, and for the translocation and rehabilitation of species in the wild. In theory, studies of many closely related species are required in order to consider relevant evolutionary processes, as well as to develop functional hypotheses about the adaptive significance of various biological propensities and their interrelationships in the short and longer terms.

Primate Adaptation and Evolution, Fourth Edition provides key features of extant families and references to more detailed texts. The book sets the scene and creates space for a thorough updating of exciting developments in primate paleontology and a reconstruction through early hominid species of our own human origins. This updated version covers recent developments in primate paleontology, the latest taxonomy, and includes new visuals, including helpful illustrations and evolutionary trees. It is an ideal text for undergraduate and post-graduate students studying the evolution and functional ecology of primates and early fossil hominids.The book retains its grounding in the extant primate groups as the best way to understand the fossil trail and evolution of these modern forms. However, this coverage is now more streamlined, referring to the many new and excellent books on living primate ecology and adaptation - a field that has burgeoned since this book's first publication. Includes over 200 new illustrations and revised evolutionary trees Offers the latest information on primate physiology, isotopes and genetics Discusses life history and dispersal patterns among species Provides new genera and data on the behavior and ecology of New World monkeys Presents the newest fossil discoveries, including platyrrhine and primitive catarrhine origins

This book presents an evolutionary perspective on feeding behaviour in human and non-human primates.

Behavioral Variation is the most thorough field research to date on the lemurs of Madagascar. Dr. Richard's investigation ranges from a history of the subject to a description of the diverse Malagasy climate and vegetation, to population dynamics, activity patterns, and social behavior, to group social life, behavioral variability, and a general review of ecology and social organization among primates.

"As someone who has spent forty years in psychology with a long-standing interest in evolution, I'll just assimilate Howard Bloom's accomplishment and my amazement."-DAVID SMILLIE, Visiting Professor of Zoology, Duke University In this extraordinary follow-up to the critically acclaimed The Lucifer Principle, Howard Bloom-one of today's preeminent thinkers-offers us a bold rewrite of the evolutionary saga. He shows how plants and animals (including humans) have evolved together as components of a worldwide learning machine. He describes the network of life on Earth as one that is, in fact, a "complex adaptive system," a global brain in which each of us plays a sometimes conscious, sometimes unknowing role. and he reveals that the World Wide Web is just the latest step in the development of this brain. These are theories as important as they are radical. Informed by twenty years of interdisciplinary research, Bloom takes us on a spellbinding journey back to the big bang to let us see how its fires forged primordial sociality. As he brings us back via surprising routes, we see how our earliest bacterial ancestors built multitrillion-member research and development teams a full 3.5 billion years ago. We watch him unravel the previously unrecognized strands of interconnectedness woven by crowds of trilobites, hunting packs of dinosaurs, feathered flying lizards gathered in flocks, troops of baboons making communal decisions, and adventurous tribes of protohumans spreading across continents but still linked by primitive forms of information networking. We soon find ourselves reconsidering our place in the world. Along the way, Bloom offers us exhilarating insights into the strange tricks of body and mind that have organized a variety of life forms: spiny lobsters, which, during the Paleozoic age, participated in communal marching rituals; and bees, which, during the age of dinosaurs, conducted collective brainwork. This fascinating tour continues on to the sometimes brutal subculture wars that have spurred the growth of human civilization since the Stone Age. Bloom shows us how culture shapes our infant brains, immersing us in a matrix of truth and mass delusion that we think of as reality. Global Brain is more than just a brilliantly original contribution to the ongoing debate on the inner workings of evolution. It is a "grand vision," says the eminent evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, a work that transforms our very view of who we are and why.

In this book, Hans Kummer, one of the world's leading primate ethologists, examines the patterns of social interaction among primates. He examines this social behavior from the fundamentally biological viewpoint of evolutionary adaptation as part of the survival mechanisms for the species. Recognizing that all activity is constituted in part of genetic programming and in part of adaptive behavior, he explores the borderline area between the genetic and the "cultural." By use of astute observation and clever experimentation he shows that many aspects of social behavior are inherited, and differentially inherited among various primate groups. These data also show, however, that the individuals and troops learn much in primate social life and that these forms are responsive to particular ecological situations. Drawing heavily on knowledge gleaned from his own well-known studies of the Hamadryas baboon, Dr. Kummer introduces the reader to the daily life of a particular primate society. From this sample case, he proceeds to a more general characterization of primate societies, using as examples the great apes and monkeys of Africa, Asia, and South America and particularly the widely studied terrestrial monkey species. The particularities of primate communication, social structure, and economy are described and special attention is devoted to the primate counterparts of kinship and age groups-behavioral differences based on age and sex, and mating and grouping systems. This is followed by a chapter dealing with the ecological functions of the major parameters of primate social life, such as group size and the coordination of activities within it-dominance, leadership systems, and spatial arrangements. The second part of the book is concerned with the origins of behavioral traits of primates, discussed from phylogenetic, ecological, and cultural points of view, again using data-based examples. Dr. Kummer explains why some traits have not evolved that would have been ada