The Evolution of the Primate Hand

de Tracy L. Kivell, Pierre Lemelin, Brian G. Richmond, Daniel Schmitt

This book demonstrates how the primate hand combines both primative and novel morphology, both general function with specialization, and both a remarkable degree of diversity within some clades and general similarity across many others. Across these chapters, different authors have addressed a variety of specific questions and provided their perspectives, but all explore the main themes described above to provide an overarching "primitive primate hand" thread to the book. Each chapter provides an in-depth review and critical account of the available literature, a balanced interpretation of the evidence from a variety of perspectives, and prospects for future research questions. In order to make this a useful resource for researchers at all levels, the basic structure of each chapter is the same, so that information can be easily consulted from chapter to chapter. An extensive reference list is provided at the end of each chapter so the reader has additional resources to address more specific questions or to find specific data. --Cover.