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Koobi Fora Research Project: The Fossil Monkeys
The sixth volume in the Koobi Fora Research Project monograph series, The Fossil Monkeys, describes the non-human primate collection of fossils recovered from the Omo-Turkana Basin. The extensive collection of monkey fossils represents eight genera of small and large colobines and cercopithecines, including Colobus, Rhinocolobus, Cercopithecoides, Paracolobus, Cercopithecus, Lophocebus, Parapapio, and Theropithecus. This publication presents a complete systematic paleontology of the Koobi Fora Cercopithecoidea up to and including collections from the 2004 field season. In addition, the volume includes discussions of natural language descriptions and keys, ecomorphological implications of molar shape and microwear, geological background, and the importance of Cercopithecoidea in the context of primate and mammalian evolution. The Fossil Monkeys is well illustrated with more than 200 figures-multiple views of key fossils and species reconstructions by Mauricio Anton of Rhinocolobus turkanaensis, Cercopithecoides williamsi, and Theropithecus oswaldi as well as interpretative graphs. Nearly 85 tables provide detailed measurement data to complement the text, while the Appendix includes an exhaustive compilation of all available measurement data for the Koobi Fora fossil monkeys. Contributions to this book have been made by Nina G. Jablonski, Meave G. Leakey, Carol V. Ward, Mauricio Anton, George Chaplin, Mark F. Teaford, Richard F. Kay, Peter S.Ungar, and Patrick Gathogo.
Skin:
A Natural History
We expose it, cover it, paint it, tattoo it, scar it, and pierce it. Our
intimate connection with the world, skin protects us while advertising
our health, our identity, and our individuality. This dazzling synthetic
overview, written with a poetic touch and taking many intriguing side
excursions, is a complete guidebook to the pliable covering that makes us
who we are. Skin: A Natural History celebrates the evolution of
three unique attributes of human skin: its naked sweatiness, its distinctive
sepia rainbow of colors, and its remarkable range of decorations.
Jablonski begins with a look at skin's structure and functions and then
tours its three-hundred-million-year evolution, delving into such topics
as the importance of touch and how the skin reflects and affects
emotions. She examines the modern human obsession with age-related
changes in skin, especially wrinkles. She then turns to skin as a canvas
for self-expression, exploring our use of cosmetics, body paint,
tattooing, and scarification. Skin: A Natural History places the
rich cultural canvas of skin within its broader biological context for
the first time, and the result is a tremendously engaging look at
ourselves. Ordering information is available at http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10283.html
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Theropithecus: The Rise and Fall of a Primate
Genus
This unique volume provides a comprehensive examination of all aspects of
the biology of the Old World monkey genus, Theropithecus, which evolved
alongside our human ancestors. The authors explore the fossil history and
evolution of the genus, its biogeography, comparative evolutionary
biology and anatomy, and the behavior and socioecology of the living and
extinct representatives of the genus. The parallels between the evolution
of Theropithecus and early hominids are discussed. There are also two
chapters of particular significance which describe how an innovative and
exciting approach to the modelling of the causes of species extinction
can be used with great success. This highly multidisciplinary approach
provides a rare and insightful account of the evolutionary biology of
this fascinating and once highly successful group of primates.
Theropithecus will be of interest to researchers in the fields of
primatology, anthropology, palaeontology, and mammalian behaviour,
physiology and anatomy. |
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The
Natural History of the Doucs and Snub-nosed Monkeys
The Natural History of the Doucs and Snub-nosed Monkeys provides a
comprehensive introduction to the biology of some of the rarest and
least-known nonhuman primates. Virtually unstudied and unknown until 20 years
ago, the doucs and snub-nosed monkeys occupy some of the most remote
habitats of eastern Asia and exhibit some of the most unusual adaptations
of any nonhuman primates. The volume provides detailed information on
these rare Asian primates that will be useful to practitioners of
evolutionary biology, field and laboratory primatology, systematics,
field ecology, and conservation biology.
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The
Origin and Diversification of Language
In The Origin and Diversification of Language a range of distinguished scientists
from disciplines as diverse as primatology, archaeology, neurobiology,
and linguistics present the latest evidence on the origin, spread and
diversification of language. The ability of human beings to communicate
practical and symbolic information of great complexity to one another
through the medium of articulate speech is one of the hallmarks of our
species. But as with many other key innovations in human evolution, the
beginnings of language did not leave direct traces in the fossil record. The
exploration of various kinds of indirect evidence has thus proven
essential. Making use of the most recent theoretical developments and
technological breakthroughs, the contributors to this volume bring a new
perspective to questions of language origins and diversification. |
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The
First Americans: The Pleistocene Colonization of the New World
As modern humans spread around the globe, the Americas represented the
final continental frontier. These first colonists were modern in appearance
and technology, but who were they and when did they arrive? Traditional
answers to these questions have come under increasing scrutiny in the
face of new findings from artifacts, skeletal remains, genes, and
languages. The peopling of the Americas has become one of archeology's
most compelling and contentious subjects, as these new lines of inquiry
and evidence reveal a more complex picture. In The First Americans: The
Pleistocene Colonization of the New World, distinguished scientists from
the fields of archeology, physical anthropology, paleoecology, genetics,
and linguistics assess the latest evidence from Siberia to Chile and
other provocative ideas for how, when, and where humans entered the
Americas. |
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Shaping Primate Evolution
Shaping Primate Evolution is an edited collection of
state-of-the-art papers about how biological form is described in primate
biology, and the consequences of form for function and behavior. The
contributors are highly regarded internationally recognized scholars in
the field of quantitative primate evolutionary morphology. Each chapter
elaborates upon the analysis of the form-function-behavior triad in a
unique and compelling way. This book is distinctive not only for the
diversity of topics discussed, but also in the range of levels of
biological organization that are addressed from cellular morphometrics to
the evolution of primate ecology. Through the marriage of theory with
analytical applications, this volume is an important reference work for
all those interested in primate functional evolution. |
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