Primate Origins: Adaptations and Evolution

Supraordinal Relationships of Primates and Their Time of Origin.- A Molecular Classification for the Living Orders of Placental Mammals and the Phylogenetic Placement of Primates.- New Light on the Dates of Primate Origins and Divergence.- The Postcranial Morphology of Ptilocercus lowii (Scandentia, Tupaiidae) and its Implications for Primate Supraordinal Relationships.- Primate Origins: A Reappraisal of Historical Data Favoring Tupaiid Affinities.- Primate Taxonomy, Plesiadapiforms, and Approaches to Primate Origins.- Adaptations and Evolution of the Cranium.- Jaw-Muscle Function and the Origin of Primates.- Were Basal Primates Nocturnal? Evidence From Eye and Orbit Shape.- Oculomotor Stability and the Functions of the Postorbital Bar and Septum.- Primate Origins and the Function of the Circumorbital Region: What's Load Got to Do with It?.- Adaptations and Evolution of the Postcranium.- Origins of Grasping and Locomotor Adaptations in Primates: Comparative and Experimental Approaches Using an Opossum Model.- Evolvability, Limb Morphology, and Primate Origins.- Primate Gaits and Primate Origins.- Morphological Correlates of Forelimb Protraction in Quadrupedal Primates.- Ancestral Locomotor Modes, Placental Mammals, and the Origin of Euprimates: Lessons From History.- The Postcranial Morphotype of Primates.- New Skeletons of Paleocene-Eocene Plesiadapiformes: A Diversity of Arboreal Positional Behaviors in Early Primates.- Adaptations and Evolution of the Brain, Behavior, Physiology, and Ecology.- Start Small and Live Slow: Encephalization, Body Size, and Life History Strategies in Primate Origins and Evolution.- Evolutionary Specializations of Primate Brain Systems.- New Views on the Origin of Primate Social Organization.- Primate Bioenergetics: An Evolutionary Perspective.- Episodic Molecular Evolution of Some Protein Hormones in Primates and Its Implications for Primate Adaptation.- Parallelisms Among Primates and Possums.- Perspectives on Primate Color Vision.

From the reviews:



"The outgrowth of a conference on the adaptive/phylogenetic aspects of the group's origin, this book includes 23 chapters in four sections. ... Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers." (E. Delson, CHOICE, Vol. 45 (2), 2007)

"Primate Origins is a weighty tome, both literally and figuratively. ... The book derives from an international symposium on primate origins ... . Space prohibits me from elaborating further upon the numerous merits of this fine volume. It would make an excellent foundation for graduate-level seminars on primate origins. All 1.3 kg of it deserves to be read and pondered by serious students of primate evolution." (Chris Beard, International Journal of Primatology, Vol. 28, 2007)