Tarsiiformes, or tarsiers for short, are a group of living species of special interest to primatologists because their combination of derived and ancient characters make them pivotal to understanding the roots of primate evolution. These small-bodied, nocturnal, solitary creatures resemble lower primates in their behavior but genetically, DNA evidence aligns them more closely with higher primates, such as monkeys, apes, and humans. These astounding creatures exhibit an ability found in no other living mammal3⁄4they can turn their heads 180 degrees in either direction to see both prey and predators. The world's only exclusive carnivorous primate, they eat live food (primarily insects, but the occasional vertebrate, such as lizards, snakes, or frogs will also do). This unique combination of behavior and anatomy makes the tarsier an especially interesting and controversial animal for study among primate behaviorists, evolutionists, and taxonomists, who view the tarsiers as "living fossils" that link past and present, lower and higher, primates in the long chain of evolutionary history. This new volume presents alternative and contrasting perspectives on the most debated questions that have arisen in tarsier studies. Top researchers bring together perspectives from anatomical, behavioral, genetic, and conservation studies in this new and exciting addition to the understanding of primate evolution. This book is a volume in the Rutgers Series on Human Evolution, edited by Robert Trivers, Lee Cronk, Helen Fischer, and Lionel Tiger.

Welcome to the world of the tarsier! Many readers may never have heard of this nocturnal creature. As an arboreal animal, the tarsier spends its time in the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines. A chapter on the tarsier's body discusses its appearance, tiny size, and special features, such as its enormous eyes, long ankle bones, or tarsals, and ability to turn its around head like an owl. Other chapters cover its habitat, including a map, its life cycle, and its diet. In fact, the tarsier's diet of only live animals has earned it the nickname "world's most carnivorous primate"! Predators, including humans, are also introduced, along with threats to the tarsier's environment, such as deforestation and hunting, and conservation efforts that are in place to protect these endangered species. Full-color photographs will draw in the reader while showing off the tarsier's unique characteristics. Glossary words in bold, phonetic spellings, and an index supplement this easy-to-read text. Checkerboard Library is an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.

A ground breaking study of primates that live in flooded habitats around the world.

Welcome to the world of the tarsier! Many readers may never have heard of this nocturnal creature. As an arboreal animal, the tarsier spends its time in the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines. A chapter on the tarsier's body discusses its appearance, tiny size, and special features, such as its enormous eyes, long ankle bones, or tarsals, and ability to turn its around head like an owl. Other chapters cover its habitat, including a map, its life cycle, and its diet. In fact, the tarsier's diet of only live animals has earned it the nickname "world's most carnivorous primate"! Predators, including humans, are also introduced, along with threats to the tarsier's environment, such as deforestation and hunting, and conservation efforts that are in place to protect these endangered species. Full-color photographs will draw in the reader while showing off the tarsier's unique characteristics. Glossary words in bold, phonetic spellings, and an index supplement this easy-to-read text. Checkerboard Library is an imprint of ABDO Publishing Company.

Tarsiers are primates, just like monkeys, apes, and people. However, they look different. Their huge eyes don’t move, the movement is in the head alone. The head of a tarsier moves almost all the way around! Readers will love the photographs of this odd-looking creature from Southeast Asia. They’ll learn more about why tarsiers are endangered and what is being done to help them.

Part of the Primate Field Studies series. The Spectral Tarier shares the results of long-term field study by Sharon L. Gursky with a broad audience.

Tarsiers can turn their heads to see almost 360 degrees around! Along with that, their eyes are about as big as their brains! This introductory title will leave beginning readers wide-eyed at how these tiny primates use their adaptations to survive.

This work reviews the biology of all living primates, including humans. It provides a taxonomic list of all living genera and species which are described with respect to their adaptation in various environmental and geographic habitats.

Taking us back roughly 45 million years into the Eocene, "the dawn of recent life," Chris Beard, a world-renowned expert on the primate fossil record, offers a tantalizing new perspective on our deepest evolutionary roots. In a fast-paced narrative full of vivid stories from the field, he reconstructs our extended family tree, showing that the first anthropoids—the diverse and successful group that includes monkeys, apes, and humans—evolved millions of years earlier than was previously suspected and emerged in Asia rather than Africa. In The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey, Beard chronicles the saga of two centuries of scientific exploration in search of anthropoid origins, from the early work of Georges Cuvier, the father of paleontology, to the latest discoveries in Asia, Africa, and North America's Rocky Mountains. Against this historical backdrop, he weaves the story of how his own expeditions have unearthed crucial fossils—including the controversial primate Eosimias—that support his compelling new vision of anthropoid evolution. The only book written for a wide audience that explores this remote phase of our own evolutionary history, The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey adds a fascinating new chapter to our understanding of humanity's relationship to the rest of life on earth.

This twenty-two volume set presents the appearance and behavior of thousands of species of animals along with species population and prospects for survival in a arranged alphabetically and easy-to-read format.