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A unique reconstruction of the paleobiology of fossil non-human primates and their key role in inferring evolutionary processes on earth.
List of contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction: primates in evolutionary time; 2. Primate taxonomy; 3. Fossils and fossilization; 4. The world of the past; 5. The lifeways of extinct animals; 6. Evolutionary processes and the pattern of primate evolution; 7. Primate origins; 8. The Paleocene primate radiation; 9. The Eocene primate radiation; 10. The Malagasy primate radiation; 11. The Oligocene bottleneck; 12. Rise of the anthropoids; 13. The platyrrhine radiation; 14. The Miocene hominoid radiation; 15. The cercopithecoid radiation; 16. Late Cenozoic climate changes; 17. Conclusions; References; Index.
About the author
Susan Cachel is Professor of Physical Anthropology at Rutgers University. She is on the Executive Committee of the Rutgers Center for Human Evolutionary Studies (CHES) since 2010 and a member of the graduate interdisciplinary Quaternary Studies Program at Rutgers since 2000. She has taught and performed research at the Koobi Fora Field School in northern Kenya, and she is currently a research associate of the Kenya National Museums (Nairobi). She was recently elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for 'incisive contributions to hominization theory, the role of nutritional fat in human occupation of high latitudes, and primate evolution'. Her previous title, Primate and Human Evolution, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2006.
Summary
Reconstructing the paleobiology of fossil non-human primates, this book draws a detailed picture of ancient primate communities, including contemporary animals and plants. With information on how fossils are formed and their role in inferring evolutionary processes, it is a unique resource for undergraduate and graduate students interested in fossil primates.
