Primate Locomotion: Recent Advances

✍ Scribed by Marian Dagosto, Daniel L. Gebo (auth.), Elizabeth Strasser, John G. Fleagle, Alfred L. Rosenberger, Henry M. McHenry (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 479
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

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 con­ ference that brought together experts with many different perspectives on primate locomo­ tion 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.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-ix
Front Matter....Pages 1-4
Methodological Issues in Studying Positional Behavior....Pages 5-29
Fine-Grained Differences within Positional Categories....Pages 31-43
Patterns of Suspensory Feeding in Alouatta palliata, Ateles geoffroyi , and Cebus capucinus ....Pages 45-60
Within- and Between-Site Variability in Moustached Tamarin ( Saguinus mystax ) Positional Behavior during Food Procurement....Pages 61-78
Locomotion, Support Use, Maintenance Activities, and Habitat Structure....Pages 79-94
The Gorilla Paradox....Pages 95-106
Front Matter....Pages 107-110
Reconstruction of Hip Joint Function in Extant and Fossil Primates....Pages 111-130
Grasping Performance in Saguinus midas and the Evolution of Hand Prehensility in Primates....Pages 131-144
Tail-Assisted Hind Limb Suspension as a Transitional Behavior in the Evolution of the Platyrrhine Prehensile Tail....Pages 145-156
Unique Aspects of Quadrupedal Locomotion in Nonhuman Primates....Pages 157-173
Forelimb Mechanics during Arboreal and Terrestrial Quadrupedalism in Old World Monkeys....Pages 175-200
Front Matter....Pages 201-204
Advances in Three-Dimensional Data Acquisition and Analysis....Pages 205-222
Laser Scanning and Paleoanthropology....Pages 223-236
Use of Strain Gauges in the Study of Primate Locomotor Biomechanics....Pages 237-254
The Information Content of Morphometric Data in Primates....Pages 255-275
Heterochronic Approaches to the Study of Locomotion....Pages 277-307
Body Size and Scaling of Long Bone Geometry, Bone Strength, and Positional Behavior in Cercopithecoid Primates....Pages 309-330
Front Matter....Pages 331-335
Afropithecus, Proconsul , and the Primitive Hominoid Skeleton....Pages 337-352
Fossil Evidence for the Origins of Terrestriality among Old World Higher Primates....Pages 353-396
Ecological Morphology of Australopithecus afarensis ....Pages 397-418
Front Matter....Pages 331-335
Time and Energy: The Ecological Context for the Evolution of Bipedalism....Pages 419-433
Heel, Squat, Stand, Stride....Pages 435-448
Evolution of the Hominid Hip....Pages 449-469
Back Matter....Pages 471-482

✦ Subjects

Zoology; Animal Physiology; Anthropology; Evolutionary Biology