Primates in History, Myth, Art, and Science

Humans views of other primates include myths and legends, accounts of early European naturalists, artistic interpretations, and natural histories, anatomical studies and collections. This book synthesizes all these different perspectives and reveals something about our perceived place in the natural world. The international team of contributors provides an integrative rendering of primates and fills a unique niche. It will be of interest to both undergraduate and graduate students as well as to scholars of different disciplines such as history of science, natural science, comparative anatomy, biology, anthropology, sociology, ethnoprimatology, paleontology and anthrozoology among others.

Cecilia Veracini is researcher at the CAPP/ISCSP of the University of Lisbon in Portugal. She graduated in Biological Science at the University of Pisa (Italy) and obtained a MSc in Anthropology from the University of Florence and University of Barcelona studying non-human primate vocal communication. She received a Ph.D. degree in Anthropological Sciences (1997) from the Florence University with a work on the eco-ethology of two species of Brazilian Amazonian primates. She served some years as Assistant Professor at the Florence and Pisa Universities and was invited professor in others Italian Universities. She worked as collaborator at many institutions, including the National Institute of Health (US), Fluminense Federal University, State of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Lion Tamarin Conservation Society also in Brazil), Museum of Natural History "La specola" of Florence (Italy), and the Museum of Natural History of Barcelona (Spain). In 2011 she received a Doctorate degree in History of Science (University of Pisa/Florence/Siena), with a thesis about the knowledge of New World primates in Renaissance Europe. She has various articles published in national and international peer reviewed journals and as well as in popular journals and various book chapters. She is author of a popular book (Primati, University Press of Florence)" and of three videos on ecology and conservation of Brazilian primates and Amazonian deforestation.

Bernard Wood is University Professor of Human Origins and Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology at George Washington University (USA). His edited publications include "Food Acquisition and Processing in Primates" and "Major Topics in Primate and Human Evolution" and he is the author of "The Evolution of Early Man, Human Evolution, Koobi Fora Research Project - Hominid Cranial Remains (Vol. 4)", "Human Evolution - A Very Short Introduction", and "Wiley-Blackwell Student Dictionary of Human Evolution" and co-author of "Comparative anatomy and phylogeny of primate muscles and human evolution", and editor of the Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution.

Rui Diogo is a Fellow of the American Association of Anatomists, and an Associate Professor at the How-ard University College of Medicine and a Resource Faculty at the Center for the Advanced Study of Hom-inid Paleobiology of George Washington University (USA). He is the author or co-author of numerous publications, and the co-editor of the books "Catfishes" and "Gonorynchiformes and ostariophysan inter-relationships". He is the sole author or first author of the books "Morphological evolution, aptations, homoplasies, constraints and evolutionary trends", "The origin of higher clades", "Muscles of vertebrates", "Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of Gorilla", "Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of gibbons and siamangs (Hylobates)", "Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of orangutans", "Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of a baby gorilla", "Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of chimpanzees", "Comparative anatomy and phylogeny of primate muscles and human evolution", and "Learning and understanding human anatomy and pathology: an evolutionary and developmental guide for medical students".