Primate Origins Adaptations and Evolution [Paperback]

This book provides a novel focus on adaptive explanations for cranial and postcranial features and functional complexes, socioecological systems, life history patterns, etc. in early primates. It further offers a detailed rendering of the phylogenetic affinities of such basal taxa to later primate clades as well as to other early/recent mammalian orders. In addition to the strictly paleontological or systemic questions regarding Primate Origins, the editors concentrate on the adaptive significance of primate characteristics. Thus, the book provides the broadest possible perspective on early primate phylogeny and the adaptive uniqueness of the Order Primates.

This book provides a novel focus on adaptive explanations for cranial and postcranial features and functional complexes in early primates. It offers the broadest possible perspective on early primate phylogeny and the adaptive uniqueness of the Order Primates.

Supraordinal Relationships of Primates and Their Time of Origin.- A Molecular Classification for the Living Orders of Placental Mammals and the Phylogenetic Placement of Primates.- New Light on the Dates of Primate Origins and Divergence.- The Postcranial Morphology of Ptilocercus lowii (Scandentia, Tupaiidae) and its Implications for Primate Supraordinal Relationships.- Primate Origins: A Reappraisal of Historical Data Favoring Tupaiid Affinities.- Primate Taxonomy, Plesiadapiforms, and Approaches to Primate Origins.- Adaptations and Evolution of the Cranium.- Jaw-Muscle Function and the Origin of Primates.- Were Basal Primates Nocturnal? Evidence From Eye and Orbit Shape.- Oculomotor Stability and the Functions of the Postorbital Bar and Septum.- Primate Origins and the Function of the Circumorbital Region: What's Load Got to Do with It?.- Adaptations and Evolution of the Postcranium.- Origins of Grasping and Locomotor Adaptations in Primates: Comparative and Experimental Approaches Using an Opossum Model.- Evolvabilitli