About this book
Introduction
This book demonstrates how the primate hand combines both primitive and novel morphology, both general function with specialization, and both a remarkable degree of diversity within some clades and yet general similarity across many others. Across the chapters, different authors have addressed a variety of specific questions and provided their perspectives, but all explore the main themes described above to provide an overarching “primitive primate hand” thread to the book. Each chapter provides an in-depth review and critical account of the available literature, a balanced interpretation of the evidence from a variety of perspectives, and prospects for future research questions. In order to make this a useful resource for researchers at all levels, the basic structure of each chapter is the same, so that information can be easily consulted from chapter to chapter. An extensive reference list is provided at the end of each chapter so the reader has additional resources to address more specific questions or to find specific data.
Keywords
Primates Morphology Hand Musculature Biomechanics Paleontology
Editors and affiliations
- Tracy L. Kivell
- Pierre Lemelin
- Brian G. Richmond
- Daniel Schmitt
- 1.Department of Human EvolutionMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnLeipzigGermany
- 2.Division of Anatomy Department of Surgery Faculty of Medicine and DentistryUniversity of AlbertaEdmontonCanada
- 3.Division of AnthropologyAmerican Museum of Natural HistoryNew YorkUSA
- 4.Department of Evolutionary AnthropologyDuke University DurhamUSA
Bibliographic information