Primate Locomotion: Recent Advances / Edition 1

by Elizabeth Strasser, John Fleagle, Alfred L. Rosenberger, Henry McHenry

Overview

The study of primate locomotion is a unique discipline that by its nature is interdis­ ciplinary, drawing on and integrating research from ethology, ecology, comparative anat­ omy, physiology, biomechanics, paleontology, etc. When combined and focused on particular problems this diversity of approaches permits unparalleled insight into critical aspects of our evolutionary past and into a major component of the behavioral repertoire of all animals. Unfortunately, because of the structure of academia, integration of these different approaches is a rare phenomenon. For instance, papers on primate behavior tend to be published in separate specialist journals and read by subgroups of anthropologists and zoologists, thus precluding critical syntheses. In the spring of 1995 we overcame this compartmentalization by organizing a conference that brought together experts with many different perspectives on primate locomotion to address the current state of the field and to consider where we go from here. The conference, Primate Locomotion-1995, took place thirty years after the pioneering confer­ ence on the same topic that was convened by the late Warren G. Kinzey at Davis in 1965.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306460227
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	10/31/1998
Edition description:	1998
Pages:	482
Product dimensions:	7.01(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.04(d)

Table of Contents

I: Naturalistic Behavior.- 1. Methodological Issues in Studying Positional Behavior: Meeting Ripley’s Challenge.- 2. Fine-Grained Differences within Positional Categories: A Case Study of Pithecia and Chiropotes.- 3. Patterns of Suspensory Feeding in Alouatta palliata, Ateles geoffroyi, and Cebus capucinus.- 4. Within- and Between-Site Variability in Moustached Tamarin (Saguinus mystax) Positional Behavior during Food Procurement.- 5. Locomotion, Support Use, Maintenance Activities, and Habitat Structure: The Case of the Tai Forest Cercopithecids.- 6. The Gorilla Paradox: The Effects of Body Size and Habitat on the Positional Behavior of Lowland and Mountain Gorillas.- II: Morphology and Behavior.- 7. Reconstruction of Hip Joint Function in Extant and Fossil Primates.- 8. Grasping Performance in Saguinus midas and the Evolution of Hand Prehensility in Primates.- 9. Tail-Assisted Hind Limb Suspension as a Transitional Behavior in the Evolution of the Platyrrhine Prehensile Tail.- 10. Unique Aspects of Quadrupedal Locomotion in Nonhuman Primates.- 11. Forelimb Mechanics during Arboreal and Terrestrial Quadrupedalism in Old World Monkeys.- III: Data Acquisition and Analytic Techniques.- 12. Advances in Three-Dimensional Data Acquisition and Analysis.- 13. Laser Scanning and Paleoanthropology: An Example from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.- 14. Use of Strain Gauges in the Study of Primate Locomotor Biomechanics.- 15. The Information Content of Morphometric Data in Primates: Function, Development, and Evolution.- 16. Heterochronic Approaches to the Study of Locomotion.- 17. Body Size and Scaling of Long Bone Geometry, Bone Strength, and Positional Behavior in Cercopithecoid Primates.- IV: Fossils and Reconstructing the Origins and Evolution of Taxa.- 18. Afropithecus, Proconsul,and the Primitive Hominoid Skeleton.- 19. Fossil Evidence for the Origins of Terrestriality among Old World Higher Primates.- 20. Ecological Morphology of Australopithecus afarensis: Traveling Terrestrially, Eating Arboreally.- 21. Time and Energy: The Ecological Context for the Evolution of Bipedalism.- 22. Heel, Squat, Stand, Stride: Function and Evolution of Hominoid Feet.- 23. Evolution of the Hominid Hip.

Editorial Reviews

With such possible exceptions as the Stealth Bomber and electric cars, it is not so much the locomotion of primates that has advanced enough to report, but the study of it, and in particular the cross-fertilization of findings and insights from the wide range of disciplines in which it can play a part, including ethnology, ecology, comparative anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, and paleontology. The symposium was designed specifically as a multidisciplinary gathering, and the 23 papers reflect the diversity in considering naturalistic behavior, morphology and behavior, data acquisition and analytic techniques, and fossils and reconstructing the origins and evolution of taxa. The underlying theme of why and when humans lost the ability to walk like proper apes breaks the surface in a few papers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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