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7 - Introduction to the Primates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2019

Joanna M. Setchell
Joanna M. Setchell
Affiliation:
Durham University
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Summary

Primates are an order of mammals which share a set of traits inherited from a common ancestor that distinguishes them from all other mammals. These derived traits are not all unique to primates and none of the individual traits is shown by all primates. Primates range in body mass from the 30 g Madame Berthe's mouse lemur to around 250 kg for a male Grauer's gorilla. This variation in size is in line with that found in other mammalian orders and is closely associated with what they eat (diet), how they move (locomotion), and their behaviour. In this chapter, I provide a general introduction to the primates and their evolutionary adaptations (traits produced by natural selection for their current function), including their distribution and habitats, adaptations to life in the trees, diet and dietary adaptations, brains and sensory traits, life history and reproduction, behaviour and locomotion, social behaviour and interactions with other species. I then survey the major groups of primates. Throughout the chapter, I highlight terms that are common in the literature but are problematic.

Keywords

primatestaxonomyadaptationecologybehavioursocial systemslife historyreproduction
Type
Chapter
Information
Studying Primates
How to Design, Conduct and Report Primatological Research
 , pp. 97 - 118
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Further Reading

Setchell, JM, Lee, PC. 2004. Development and sexual selection in primates. In Kappeler, PM, van Schaik, C (eds) Sexual Selection in Primates: New and Comparative Perspectives. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542459.012. Includes definitions of age classes.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7.11 Further Reading

*These books use the prosimian/anthropoid distinction rather than strepsirrhine/haplorrhine. Don’t copy this.

Agnani, P, Kauffman, C, Hayes, LD, Schradin, C. 2018. Intra-specific variation in social organization of Strepsirrhines. American Journal of Primatology 80: e22758. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22758. A review of the primary literature shows that many strepsirrhines display complex and often variable social organisations and that only 7% of species are exclusively solitary.Google Scholar
Aureli, F, Schaffner, CM, Boesch, C, Bearder, SK, Call, J, Chapman, CA, Connor, R, Di Fiore, A, Dunbar, RIM, Henzi, SP, Holekamp, K, Korstjens, AH, Layton, R, Lee, PC, Lehmann, J, Manson, JH, Ramos-Fernandez, G, Strier, KB, Van Schaik, CP. 2008. Fission–fusion dynamics: new research frameworks. Current Anthropology 49: 627–654. Explains why we should use fission–fusion dynamics rather than using the term fission–fusion to describe a type of social system.Google Scholar
Boyd, R, Silk, JB. 2014. How Humans Evolved. 7th edn. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Includes chapters on primate diversity and ecology, primate mating systems, primate life histories and the evolution of intelligence, and primate evolution. Uses mating system terms for social units.Google Scholar
Fleagle, JG. 2013. Primate Adaptation and Evolution. 3rd edn. New York: Academic Press. Textbook with details of primate adaptation and evolution.*Google Scholar
Fleagle, J (ed). 2014. Special Issue on identifying primate species. Evolutionary Anthropology 23: 1–40. Twelve essays on how we define and identify primate species.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleagle, JG, Janson, C, Reed, K (eds). 1999. Primate Communities. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Reviews the composition, behaviour, and ecology of primate communities in Africa, Asia, Madagascar, and South America.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groves, C. 2008. Extended Family: Long Lost Cousins. A Personal Look at the History of Primatology. Arlington, VA: Conservation International. A history of the knowledge and understanding of non-human primates seen through the eyes of the late Colin Groves.Google Scholar
Groves, C. 2012. Species concept in primates. American Journal of Primatology 74: 687–691. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22035. A review of species definitions, focussing on primates.Google Scholar
Groves, C. 2017. Primates (Taxonomy). In Fuentes, A (ed), The International Encyclopedia of Primatology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 1103–1110. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0045. An explanation of taxonomy, with an annotated taxonomy of primates.Google Scholar
Haraway, DJ. 1989. Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science. New York: Routledge. A feminist history of primatology in the twentieth century.Google Scholar
Kappeler, P, Cuozzo, F, Fitchel, C, Ganzhorn, J, Gursky-Doyen, S, Irwin, M, Ichino, S, Lawler, R, Nekaris, K, Ramanamanjato, J, Radespiel, U, Sauther, M, Wright, P, Zimmermann, E. 2017. Long-term field studies of lemurs, lorises and tarsiers. Journal of Mammalogy 98: 661–669. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyx013. Reviews the social and ecological diversity of strepsirrhines, with a focus on long-term studies. Highlights the dearth of long-term studies on tarsiers (1), lorises (1), galagos (0), and pottos (0).Google Scholar
Mitani, JC, Call, J, Kappeler, PM, Palombit, RA, Silk, JB. 2012. The Evolution of Primate Societies. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Synthesises what we know about primate behaviour and socioecology. A hefty and indispensable volume intended as a sequel to the hugely influential 1987 volume Primate Societies (Smuts BB, Cheney DL, Seyfarth RM, Wrangham R, Struhsaker TT, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press). Part 1 provides very useful, detailed reviews of what we know about each of the major primate taxa. Parts 2–5 address the adaptive problems primates face.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roos, C, Zinner, D. 2017. Primate phylogeny. In Fuentes, A (ed), The International Encyclopedia of Primatology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 1063–1067. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119179313.wbprim0394. An explanation of phylogenetic reconstruction, with a simplified primate phylogeny.Google Scholar
Rowe, N, Myers, M. 2016. All the World’s Primates. 2nd edn. Charlestown, RI: Pogonias Press. Wonderful images of the world’s primates and a wealth of natural history information. See also the website https://alltheworldsprimates.org.Google Scholar
Strier, KB. 1994. Myth of the typical primate. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 37: 233–271. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330370609. Reviews the problems associated with generalising from studies of a few species of primate to describe the typical primate.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strier, KB. 2017. Primate Behavioral Ecology. 5th edn. New York: Routledge. Primate behaviour and socioecology.*Google Scholar
Tecot, SR, Singletary, B, Eadie, . 2015. Why ‘monogamy’ isn’t good enough. American Journal of Primatology 78: 340–354. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.22412. A reminder of the need to distinguish between social organisation, mating system, and social structure, focussing on strepsirrhines.Google Scholar

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