The theme of this book is our primate biology, or who we are as a continuum of our animal ancestors. Professor Sharpes first uses comparative animal studies and recent finds in archaeology to outline this argument and theme, and thus provides evidence for human animal origins. He then reveals how our emotions and behaviors influence our lives as demonstrated through the major social sciences - the philosophy of our cognitive functioning, our psychology, and our religious beliefs as consumers (the economy), as national citizens (political science, government), and as world citizens (climate change). The idea is to examine the human condition from more than one discipline, and to synthesise research studies that analyse human behavior that is socially similar to other primate behavior. What makes this book unique is its interdisciplinary investigation of human primates from the variety of the social sciences. He has conducted similar research in two previous books, The Evolution of the Social Sciences (2009) and Outcast and Heretics, Profiles in Independent Thought and Courage (2007). The target audience is the articulate and literate community in the broad field of the social sciences, a book appropriate for a general audience, and students in all the social science specialties, including interdisciplinary studies such as courses in evolution, climate change, politics, anthropology, psychology and the life sciences.

The effects of the bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) family on bone formation are well documented, but the transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta ( ) isoforms are much less studied. The product of 20 years of study, Induction of Bone Formation in Primates: The Transforming Growth Factor- 3 sums up editor Ugo Ripamonti's research into the osteogenic activity of the three mammalian TGF- isoforms, particularly in primates. It explores how the mammalian TGF- isoforms have the potential to shed light on the apparent redundancy of bone induction signaling. The book unearths the profound and important bone inductive activity of the TGF- 3 isoform. It includes accounts of extensive research in non-human primates from craniofacial tissue regeneration, heterotopic tissue induction, and chapters on periodontal tissue regeneration and synergistic induction of bone formation. It also discusses the future clinical role of the TGF- isoform, including in human studies. This book contributes to the fascinating history of BMP and TGF- research at the intersection of molecular biology, tissue induction, bone regeneration, and craniofacial surgery. It provides a revolutionary awakening to new possibilities in skeletal reconstruction, tissue engineering, and molecular and cellular biology.

The first photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of a baby gorilla, this book details the comparative and phylogenetic context of the gross anatomy and evolutionary history of the soft tissue morphology of modern humans and one of their closest relatives. With detailed high-quality photographs of musculoskeletal structures, it provides an updated review of the anatomical variations within gorillas as well as an extensive list of the synonyms used in the literature to designate the structures discussed. It will be of interest to students, teachers, and researchers studying primatology, comparative anatomy, functional morphology, zoology, and physical anthropology.

In this remarkable volume, Dr. Jean-Paul Debenat, a professor of comparative literature (University of Nantes, France) with a flair for anthropology, takes us far beyond the realm of documented research on the Sasquatch / Bigfoot phenomenon. His extensive travels in North America, skilful investigations, and years of research on the 'wild man' throughout world history have resulted in this highly authoritative work. Dr Debenat's handling of the subject is both unique and exciting, as well as being highly factual. Rather than a simple presentation of facts and findings, we are taken to the very 'heart' of the matter with meaningful insights and knowledgeable interpretations - one experiences the full spectrum of learning, including emotion. Originally published in French, the work has been translated, modified, and enhanced for the English-speaking public. It is a classic work that will intrigue readers in all walks of life.

Primate Sexuality provides an authoritative and comprehensive synthesis of current research on the evolution and physiological control of sexual behaviour in the primates - prosimians, monkeys, apes, and human beings. This new edition has been fully updated and greatly expanded throughout to incorporate a decade of new research findings. It maintains the depth and scientific rigour of the first edition, and includes a new chapter on human sexuality, written from a comparative perspective. It contains 2600 references, almost 400 figures and photographs, and 73 tables.

In Decolonizing Extinction Juno Salazar Parrenas ethnographically traces the ways in which colonialism, decolonization, and indigeneity shape relations that form more-than-human worlds at orangutan rehabilitation centers on Borneo. Parrenas tells the interweaving stories of wildlife workers and the centers' endangered animals while demonstrating the inseparability of risk and futurity from orangutan care. Drawing on anthropology, primatology, Southeast Asian history, gender studies, queer theory, and science and technology studies, Parrenas suggests that examining workers' care for these semi-wild apes can serve as a basis for cultivating mutual but unequal vulnerability in an era of annihilation. Only by considering rehabilitation from perspectives thus far ignored, Parrenas contends, could conservation biology turn away from ultimately violent investments in population growth and embrace a feminist sense of welfare, even if it means experiencing loss and pain.

Primate Sexuality provides an authoritative and comprehensive synthesis of current research on the evolution and physiological control of sexual behaviour in the primates - prosimians, monkeys, apes, and human beings. This new edition has been fully updated and greatly expanded throughout to incorporate a decade of new research findings. It maintains the depth and scientific rigour of the first edition, and includes a new chapter on human sexuality, written from a comparative perspective. It contains 2600 references, almost 400 figures and photographs, and 73 tables.

Biogeography is a vital component in many aspects of Primatology, including studies of evolution, speciation systematics, population genetics, and community ecology. Despite its integral position in studies of primate evolution and ecology and the broad representation of research on this subject in journals, field guides, and edited volumes on different regions of the world, Primate Biogeography is a subject that is rarely addressed as a discipline in its own right. This comprehensive source introduces the reader to Primate Biogeography as a discipline, highlights the many factors that may influence the distribution of primates, and reveals the wide range of approaches that are available to understanding the distribution of this order.

Based on field studies spanning nearly 40 years, this reference book summarizes and integrates past research with new and previously unpublished information on the behavioral ecology of Africa's red colobus monkeys from study sites as diverse as Senegal, Uganda and Zanzibar. It provides an unparalleled compilation of information on taxonomy, genetics, vocalizations, demography, social organization, dispersal, social behavior, reproduction, mortality factors, diet, ranging patterns, interspecific relations, and conservation. Social relationships in red colobus are less rigidly structured than in other African monkeys, resulting in considerable variation in social organization and group composition, both within and between taxa. This provides a unique opportunity to examine the extent to which social variables correlate with differences in habitat quality, demography, and predation by chimpanzees and humans. Unfortunately, at least half of the 18 taxa of red colobus are now threatened with extinction. Conservation problems are described, causal factors identified, and solutions proposed. This volume is intended not only to serve as a reference book, but to stimulate and guide future long-term research and to encourage effective conservation action.

This book describes one of our closest relatives, the orangutan, and the only extant great ape in Asia. It is increasingly clear that orangutan populations show extensive variation in behavioural ecology, morphology, life history, and genes. Indeed, on the strength of the latest genetic and morphological evidence, it has been proposed that orangutans actually constitute two species which diverged more than a million years ago - one on the island of Sumatra the other on Borneo, with the latter comprising three subspecies.
This book has two main aims. The first is to carefully compare data from every orangutan research site, examining the differences and similarities between orangutan species, subspecies, and populations. The second is to develop a theoretical framework in which these differences and similarities can be explained. To achieve these goals the editors have assembled the world's leading orangutan experts to rigorously synthesize and compare the data, quantify the similarities or differences, and seek to explain them.
Orangutans is the first synthesis of orangutan biology to adopt this novel, comparative approach. It analyses and compares the latest data, developing a theoretical framework to explain morphological, life history, and behavioural variation. Intriguingly, not all behavioural differences can be attributed to ecological variation between and within the two islands; relative rates of social learning also appear to have been influential. The book also emphasizes the crucial impact of human settlement on orangutans and looks ahead to the future prospects for the survival of critically endangered natural populations.

What can the study of young monkeys and apes tell us about the minds of young humans? In this fascinating introduction to the study of primate minds, Juan Carlos Gomez identifies evolutionary resemblances--and differences--between human children and other primates. He argues that primate minds are best understood not as fixed collections of specialized cognitive capacities, but more dynamically, as a range of abilities that can surpass their original adaptations.

In a lively overview of a distinguished body of cognitive developmental research among nonhuman primates, Gomez looks at knowledge of the physical world, causal reasoning (including the chimpanzee-like errors that human children make), and the contentious subjects of ape language, theory of mind, and imitation. Attempts to teach language to chimpanzees, as well as studies of the quality of some primate vocal communication in the wild, make a powerful case that primates have a natural capacity for relatively sophisticated communication, and considerable power to learn when humans teach them.

Gomez concludes that for all cognitive psychology's interest in perception, information-processing, and reasoning, some essential functions of mental life are based on ideas that cannot be explicitly articulated. Nonhuman and human primates alike rely on implicit knowledge. Studying nonhuman primates helps us to understand this perplexing aspect of all primate minds.

The inspiration for the film The Dark Divide starring David Cross and Debra Messing, one of America's most esteemed natural history writers takes to the hills in search of Bigfoot-and finds the wildness within ourselves. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to investigate the legends of Sasquatch, Yale-trained ecologist Dr. Robert Pyle treks into the unprotected wilderness of the Dark Divide near Mount St. Helens, where he discovers both a giant fossil footprint and recent tracks. On the trail of what he thought was legend, he searches out Indians who tell him of an outcast tribe, the Seeahtiks, who had not fully evolved into humans. A handful of open-minded biologists and anthropologists counter the tabloids Pyle studies, while rogue Forest Service employees and loggers swear of a vast conspiracy to deep-six true stories of unknown, upright hominoid apes among us. He attends Sasquatch Daze, where he meets scientists, hunters, and others who have devoted their lives to the search, only to realize that "these guys don't want to find Bigfoot they want to be Bigfoot!" Since its original publication, the author's fresh experiences and finds have been added to his original work through an updated chapter. With an evaluation of recent DNA evidence from Bigfoot hair and scat, the study of speech phonemes in the "Sierra Sounds" purported Bigfoot recordings, an examination of the impact of the wildly popular Animal Planet series Bigfoot Hunters, the reemergence of the famous Bob Gimlin into the Bigfoot community, and more, Walking With Bigfoot keeps every Bigfoot enthusiast's mind wide open to one of the biggest questions in the land and brings Pyle's work on the "legend" of Bigfoot into the new century.

In 1953 a young female Japanese macaque called Imo began washing sweet potatoes before eating them, presumably to remove dirt and sand grains. Soon other monkeys had adopted this behaviour, and potato-washing gradually spread throughout the troop. When, three years after her first invention, Imo devised a second novel foraging behaviour, that of separating wheat from sand by throwing mixed handfuls into water and scooping out the floating grains, she was almost instantly heralded around the world as a 'monkey genius'. Imo is probably the most celebrated of animal innovators. In fact, many animals will invent new behaviour patterns, adjust established behaviours to a novel context, or respond to stresses in an appropriate and novel manner.

Innovation is an important component of behavioural flexibility, vital to the survival of individuals in species with generalist or opportunistic lifestyles, and potentially of critical importance to those endangered or threatened species forced to adjust to changed or impoverished environments. Innovation may also have played a central role in avian and primate brain evolution. Yet until recently animal innovation has been subject to almost complete neglect by behavioural biologists, psychologists, social learning researchers, and conservation-minded biologists.

This collection of stimulating and readable articles by leading scientific authorities is the first ever book on 'animal innovation', designed to put the topic of animal innovation on the map and heighten awareness of this developing field.

This seminal work chronicles George B. Schaller's two years of travel and observation of gorillas in East and Central Africa in the late 1950s, high in the Virunga volcanoes on the Zaire-Rwanda-Uganda border. There, he learned that these majestic animals, far from being the aggressive apes of film and fiction, form close-knit societies of caring mothers and protective fathers watching over playful young. Alongside his observations of gorilla society, Schaller celebrates the enforced yet splendid solitude of the naturalist, recounts the adventures he experienced along the way, and offers a warning against poaching and other human threats against these endangered creatures. This edition features a postscript detailing Schaller's more recent visits with gorillas, current to 2009.

"Whether the author is tracking gorillas, slipping past elephant herds on narrow jungle paths, avoiding poachers' deadfalls, or routing Watusi invaders, this is an exciting book. Although Schaller feels that this is 'not an adventure book, ' few readers will be able to agree."--Irven DeVore, "Science"

The chimpanzees are the closest living evolutionary relatives to our own species, Homo sapiens. As such, they have long exerted a fascination over those with an interest in human evolution, and human uniqueness. Chrisophe Boesch and Hedwige Boesch-Acherman undertook an incredible observational study of a group of wild chimpanzees in Cote D'Ivoire, spending some fifteen years in the West African forest with them. This fascinating book is the result of these years of painstaking research among the chimps. Chimpanzee behaviour is documented here in all its impressive diversity and variety, and placed within the broader context of research in behavioural ecology. The authors also succeed in shedding light on some of the central questions around the evolutionary relationships between the primates, and in particular the affinity between chimpanzees and humans.

Researchers have studied non-human primate cognition along different paths, including social cognition, planning and causal knowledge, spatial cognition and memory, and gestural communication, as well as comparative studies with humans. This volume describes how primate cognition is studied in labs, zoos, sanctuaries, and in the field, bringing together researchers examining similar issues in all of these settings and showing how each benefits from the others. Readers will discover how lab-based concepts play out in the real world of free primates. This book tackles pressing issues such as replicability, research ethics, and open science. With contributors from a broad range of comparative, cognitive, neuroscience, developmental, ecological, and ethological perspectives, the volume provides a state-of-the-art review pointing to new avenues for integrative research.

Chimpanzees fascinate people for many reasons. We are struck by the apes' resemblance to humanity, as seen in their use of tools and their complex social lives, and we are moved by the threats that human activity poses to them. Our awareness of our closest living relatives testifies to the efforts of the remarkable people who study these creatures and work to protect them. What motivates someone to dedicate their lives to chimpanzees? How does that reflect on our own species? This book brings together a range of chimpanzee experts who tell powerful personal stories about their lives and careers. It features some of the world's preeminent primatologists-including Jane Goodall and Frans de Waal-as well as representatives of a new generation from varied backgrounds. In addition to field scientists, the book features anthropologists, biologists, psychologists, veterinarians, conservationists, and the director of a chimpanzee sanctuary. Some grew up in the English countryside, others in villages in Congo; some first encountered chimpanzees in a zoo, others in the forests surrounding their homes. All are united by a common purpose: to study and understand chimpanzees in order to protect them in the wild and care for them in zoos and sanctuaries. Contributors share what inspired them, what shaped their career choices, and what motivates them to strive for solutions to the many challenges that chimpanzees face today.

Comparative Neuropsychology is a collection of state-of-the-art essays by some of the world's leading neuropsychologists. It is prepared as a tribute to the late George Ettlinger, one of the leading figures in comparative neuropsychology research over the last 40 years, and reflects current research in the many areas where Ettlinger made a particular contribution to our understanding. Taking as their starting point the assumption that the human brain shares many of its most important functional systems with its primate relatives, the authors take a comparative evolutionary approach to understanding human cognition and brain function. The book's fifteen chapters cover a wide range of subject areas, including memory, visual and somatosensory perception, motor control, attention, cross-modality integration, interhemispheric transmission, and behavioural intelligence. The final chapters of the book critically discuss questions basic to the comparative enterprise: whether we can in fact apply concepts derived from human cognitive psychology to primate neuropsychology, and whether there are evolutionary discontinuities in cortical brain structure among the higher primate species. One of the first and most comprehensive books to be written on the topic, Comparative Neuropsychology forms a fascinating and wide-ranging collection. It will be read by undergraduate and post-graduate students in psychology, neuroscience, and neuropsychology, as well as researchers in those areas.

Starting with concise species accounts for all the marmoset and tamarin monkeys, this important new book then goes on to review their geographical distributions and still-contested taxonomy, along with comparative reviews of vocalizations, scent-marking, mating systems, infant care and development, social organization, and behaviour and ecology in the wild. As several of these small primates are rare or threatened, these subjects are strongly relevant to their management in captivity as well as for understanding natural populations. This is the first volume for several years to review current knowledge of this family, which comprises 52 species and subspecies found from Panama to northeastern Paraguay to southern Brazil.

The Colobines are a group of Afroeurasian monkeys that exhibit extraordinary behavioural and ecological diversity. With long tails and diverse colourations, they are medium-sized primates, mostly arboreal, that are found in many different habitats, from rain forests and mountain forests to mangroves and savannah. Over the last two decades, our understanding of this group of primates has increased dramatically. This volume presents a comprehensive overview of the current research on colobine populations, including the range of biological, ecological, behavioural and societal traits they exhibit. It highlights areas where our knowledge is still lacking, and outlines the current conservation status of colobine populations, exploring the threats to their survival. Bringing together international experts, this volume will aid future conservation efforts and encourage further empirical studies. It will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in primatology, biological anthropology and conservation science. Additional online resources can be found at www.cambridge.org/colobines.

Societies develop as a result of the interactions of individuals as they compete and cooperate with one another in the evolutionary struggle to survive and reproduce successfully. Gorilla society is arranged according to these different and sometimes conflicting evolutionary goals of the sexes. In seeking to understand why gorilla society exists as it does, Alexander H. Harcourt and Kelly J. Stewart bring together extensive data on wild gorillas, collected over decades by numerous researchers working in diverse habitats across Africa, to illustrate how the social system of gorillas has evolved and endured.
"Gorilla Society "introduces recent theories explaining primate societies, describes gorilla life history, ecology, and social systems, and explores both sexes' evolutionary strategies of survival and reproduction. With a focus on the future, Harcourt and Stewart conclude with suggestions for future research and conservation. An exemplary work of socioecology from two of the world's best known gorilla biologists, "Gorilla Society" will be a landmark study on a par with the work of George Schaller--a synthesis of existing research on these remarkable animals and the societies in which they live.

The chimpanzee of all other living species is our closest relation, with whom we last shared a common ancestor about five million years ago. These African apes make and use a rich and varied kit of tools, and of the primates they are the only consistent and habitual tool-users and tool-makers. Chimpanzees meet the criteria of a culture as originally defined for human beings by socio-cultural anthropologists. They show sex differences in using tools to obtain and to process a variety of plant and animal foods. The technological gap between chimpanzees and human societies that live by foraging (hunter-gatherers) is surprisingly narrow at least for food-getting. Different communities of wild chimpanzees have different tool-kits and not all of this regional and local variation can be explained by the demands of the physical and biotic environments in which they live. Some differences are likely to be customs based on socially derived and symbolically encoded traditions. This book describes and analyzes the tool-use of humankind's nearest living relation. It focuses on field studies of these apes across Africa, comparing their customs to see if they can justifiably be termed cultural. It makes direct comparisons with the material culture of human foraging peoples. The book evaluates the chimpanzee as an evolutionary model, showing that chimpanzee behavior helps us to infer the origins of technology in human prehistory.

The propagation of wild animals in captivity is playing an increasingly important role in the conservation of species. This is particularly true of primates, many of which are threatened or endangered in their natural habitat. Unfortunately, primate mortality during the neonatal period is often high in captivity, often because of suboptimal management. Significant improvements in infant survival can be made with a better knowledge of neonatal biology and rearing procedures. The aim of this book is to provide a reference text on the normal growth of 18 primate species commonly held in captivity for propagation or research, and on the housing, feeding, management, and preventative medicine techniques that enable this normal growth. Up-to-date information, scattered widely through the scientific literature, is here gathered together and presented in an easily accessible form for those involved in rearing primates in captivity.

Scientific studies of monkeys, apes, and other nonhuman primates began just over 50 years ago. Since then tens of thousands of hours of observation have been made on these animals in the wild and in captivity. The chief rationale for scientific primatology has always been the belief that important insights into human behaviour and society could be gained through studies of our evolutionary kin.

This book reviews what we have learned. Distinguished researchers outline primatological insights in six areas: sex, parenting, behavioural development, aggression/dominance, culture and kinship. The chapters show how primates have been used as simplified models of human behaviour and how they have contributed to scenarios of human evolution. Lay readers, students, and specialists alike will find this a readable and useful compendium of the findings of scientific primatology. Covering topics from orgasm to ontogeny, parental investment to penis size, and kinship to culture, this book summarizes what studying monkeys and apes has taught us about ourselves.