The Chosen Primate ends by looking forward to the next millennium, noting that our future depends on our response to another fundamental question: Will our culture, which has given us the means to adapt successfully to nature, ultimately destroy nature? In raising this question, Kuper shows that debates in anthropology are more than just academic disputes - they engage the major issues of our time.

This book explores how seasonal variation in resource abundance might have driven primate and human evolution.

The essential guide to successfully designing, conducting and reporting primatological research.

How did we become the linguistic, cultured, and hugely successful apes that we are? Our closest relatives--the other mentally complex and socially skilled primates--offer tantalizing clues. In Tree of Origin nine of the world's top primate experts read these clues and compose the most extensive picture to date of what the behavior of monkeys and apes can tell us about our own evolution as a species. It has been nearly fifteen years since a single volume addressed the issue of human evolution from a primate perspective, and in that time we have witnessed explosive growth in research on the subject. Tree of Origin gives us the latest news about bonobos, the make love not war apes who behave so dramatically unlike chimpanzees. We learn about the tool traditions and social customs that set each ape community apart. We see how DNA analysis is revolutionizing our understanding of paternity, intergroup migration, and reproductive success. And we confront intriguing discoveries about primate hunting behavior, politics, cognition, diet, and the evolution of language and intelligence that challenge claims of human uniqueness in new and subtle ways. Tree of Origin provides the clearest glimpse yet of the apelike ancestor who left the forest and began the long journey toward modern humanity.

Is modern man the logical conclusion of a long evolutionary journey? Or are humans merely an evolutionary accident? The Chosen Species answers these and many other questions about our origins. Authors Juan Luis Arsuaga and Ignacio Martínez are world-renowned paleoanthropologists and co-directors of the excavations at Atapuerca---a World Heritage Site and Europe’s oldest known burial site---where their team discovered a new human species, homo antecessor. Their work has changed the way we see human evolution. Here, the authors draw on their rich experience to provide a fascinating account of our origins. They reconstruct the sequence of events, give an account of how, when, and why man evolved, and draw conclusions based on verifiable facts and well-founded argument. The Chosen Species combines scientific rigor with a spellbinding style that will grip readers as they follow the tale to its end.

The Serial Probe Recognition (SPR) task utilizes a set of six images shown at a set interval followed by a probe and a white block. If the probe item was contained in the list, the probe is pressed. If the probe item was not in the previously viewed list, the white block is pressed. Before using the SPR task for screening potential pretreatment and therapy compounds against chemical warfare agents, improvements to the current SPR programming were necessary. Working with the DAKKRO Corp. (Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD), an SPR program was written that allowed greater control over all parameters of the program. Working with Rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), the program was tested and corrected as needed. Animals were able to adjust to the new program quickly and required very little new training. The program proved to be user friendly and allowed investigators to adjust the program configuration easily. The analysis program reduces analysis time from 40 minutes per animal per day to less than one minute per animal per day. Program use is outlined, and a short tour of the program is provided showing how to create an animal file, set up an animal information file, perform an experimental run, analyze data and delete animal files.

This edited volume is the first of its kind to bridge the epistemological gap between primate ethologists and primate neurobiologists. Leading experts in several fields review work ranging from primate foraging behavior to the neurophysiology of motor control, from vocal communication to the functions of the auditory cortex.

The Primate Origins of Human Nature (Volume 3 in The Foundations of Human Biology series) blends several elements from evolutionary biology as applied to primate behavioral ecology and primate psychology, classical physical anthropology and evolutionary psychology of humans. However, unlike similar books, it strives to define the human species relative to our living and extinct relatives, and thus highlights uniquely derived human features. The book features a truly multi-disciplinary, multi-theory, and comparative species approach to subjects not usually presented in textbooks focused on humans, such as the evolution of culture, life history, parenting, and social organization.

Researchers have studied non-human primate cognition along different paths, including social cognition, planning and causal knowledge, spatial cognition and memory, and gestural communication, as well as comparative studies with humans. This volume describes how primate cognition is studied in labs, zoos, sanctuaries, and in the field, bringing together researchers examining similar issues in all of these settings and showing how each benefits from the others. Readers will discover how lab-based concepts play out in the real world of free primates. This book tackles pressing issues such as replicability, research ethics, and open science. With contributors from a broad range of comparative, cognitive, neuroscience, developmental, ecological, and ethological perspectives, the volume provides a state-of-the-art review pointing to new avenues for integrative research.