The Functional and Evolutionary Biology of Primates

534 Pages·2007·35.641 MB·English

by  Russell Tuttle (editor)

The
FUNCTIONAL
and
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BIOLOGY PRIMATES
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editor
The
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Copyright © 1972 by Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Inc.
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2007022248
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The functional and evolutionary biology of primates / [edited by] Russell
Tuttle.
p.cm.
Based on the 1970 Burg Wartenstein symposium on “functional and evolu-
tionary biology of primates: methods of study and recent advances,” held July
18-26, 1970 at the European Conference Center of the Wenner-Gren Foundation
for Anthropological Research.
Originally published: Chicago : Aldine-Atherton, 1972.
ISBN 978-0-202-36139-0
1. Primates—Congresses. 2. Evolution (Biology)—Congresses. 3. Human
evolution—Congresses. I. Tuttle, Russell.
QL737.P9F8 2007
599.8—dc22 2007022248
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to
THEODORE D. MCCOWN

Introduction
Burg Wartenstein Symposium No. 48 on Functional and Evolutionary
Biology of Primates: Methods of Study and Recent Advances convened
July 18-26, 1970, at the European Conference Center of the Wenner-Gren
Foundation for Anthropological Research near Gloggnitz, Austria. Twenty
one scientists participated in six daily sessions, and Professor Adolph H.
Schultz honored us with an evening lecture on the history, progress, and
prospects of primatological research.
Invitations to the conference contained notice of the topics that I wished
to be developed by each participant. The invitations also listed the following
"statement of general purpose":
The major objective of the conference is to bring several perspectives to
bear on a variety of problems in evolutionary primatology. We hope to em
phasize experimental design, quantification, and the strategies of the compara
tive method and intensive longitudinal studies in morphology and behavior.
Since the most convincing proofs of the validity of a particular technique or
approach are the quality of results obtained through its application and the
credibility of inferences that may be based on such studies, participants are
asked to emphasize the results and implications of their research for basic
theoretical problems.
Subsequently, I wrote to each participant, suggesting more specifically
the nature of the expositions that they might attempt on the problems
selected for discussion at the conference.
Five broad groups of basic subject matter on functional and evolutionary
primatology were represented at the symposium: paleoprimatology; cranial
morphology; comparative neurobiology and endocasts; postcranial mor
phology; and aspects of behavior and ecology. In order to treat these five
subject areas with an acceptable level of thoroughness, we were regrettably
vii
viii RUSSELL TUTTLE
induced to omit detailed representation of certain other important disci
plines, such as biomolecular primatology and prehistory which have been
discussed at length in several previous conferences.
Paleoprimatology provides the only direct evidence for detailing the
phylogenetic histories of primate lineages. The chronology of evolutionary
events is wholly dependent upon accurately dated fossils. But because of the
fragmentary nature of most fossils, postdeposition perturbations at fossil
sites, limited methods of recovery and analysis, the complexity and diversity
of datable minerals and their associations with fossils, and many other com
plicating factors, paleoprimatologists are somewhat limited on the empirical
data that they can extract from available fossils. Thus, like other compara
tive evolutionary biologists, they must depend heavily upon inference in
constructing models and hypotheses on the course of evolution and the life
habits of principals in the primate career. In order to establish broader bases
of inference and more complete profiles on hypothetical form and functions
in extinct species, paleoprimatologists often consult other branches of com
parative evolutionary biology in addition to searching constantly for more
fossils.
The difficulties that beset the evolutionary primatologist who attempts to
infer the mechanical and genetical factors that may be causally related to
features of bones and teeth in extant primates are increased many-fold
should he turn his attention to extinct species, upon which most kinds of
experiments and behavioral observations cannot be conducted. Further, not
only the incompleteness of certain fossils but also their sparse representation
in available collections may limit the scope of information that may be re
covered from the fossils themselves and the nature of quantitative compari
sons between them and other taxa.
Among evolutionary primatological sciences, investigations on cranial
morphology occupy a preeminent position for the documentation of taxo
nomic affinities among living and fossil species. Except for certain aspects
of the masticatory apparatus, orbital dimensions, and perhaps some neuro
cranial dimensions, many features of the skull evidence negligible detectable
functional correlates. It is therefore commonly believed among evolutionary
biologists that the postcranial skeleton may reflect more fully the functional
and ecological particularities of a species than its skull can.
Whereas selected features of primate skulls may be expressed quantita
tively and persist in fossilized specimens, certain soft structures of the head,
in particular the facial muscles, are generally difficult to measure in living
forms and leave little impression on underlying bony features. Yet it is
these perishable structures which are employed by taxonomists to distinguish
colobine from cercopithecine monkeys.
One of the greatest sets of challenges that face comparative primatologists
and anthropologists is the precise description and evolutionary explanation
of particular morphological features in carefully chosen series of primate
Introduction ix
brains. The evolution of the neurological bases of human speech, tool
making capacities, and other symbolic behaviors also remain poorly eluci
dated today.
Two basic kinds of evidence may be brought to bear on problems of
brain evolution in primate lineages, viz., results of comparative studies on
brains of extant species and comparative studies on fossil and extant primate
endocasts. Both approaches entail a great amount of painstaking effort in
order to accumulate representative comparative and evolutionary series.
Comparative neurobiologists and paleoneurobiologists must possess a broad
knowledge of neurophysiology, naturalistic behavior, and ecology in living
primates in order to explain the results of their studies in functional and
evolutionary contexts.
Whereas comparative neurobiologists studying extant primates may ex
amine both external and internal neural features, the paleoneurobiologist is
restricted to available surface features of naturally occurring fossil endocasts
and endocasts prepared in the laboratory from fossil crania. There are no
known instances of brains themselves being fossilized such that paleohis
tological studies could be conducted on them. The occurrence of such fossil
specimens is not to be anticipated due to the paucity of supporting connec
tive tissues and concordant rapid postmortem degeneration of the brain.
Studies on the postcranial morphology of primates and especially investi
gations on primate locomotive systems have long been of central interest to
evolutionary anthropologists and other biologists. During the past two
decades, a profusion of experimental and analytical techniques have been
developed and refined which not only permit but also necessitate their
several employment in functional and evolutionary studies on primate loco
motion and other motile behaviors.
Studies on the morphology of extant and fossil primates, in view of
biomechanical principles known to be operant in living systems, may gen
erate credible hypotheses on the functions of selected parts of an individual
and perhaps on certain aspects of its life habits. But functional models
based on morphology alone are greatly limited in scope and often remain
equivocal until they are confirmed, revised, or rejected on the basis of
naturalistic behavioral observations, laboratory behavioral studies, or both.
The increased number and intensity of behavioral studies on nonhuman
primates, though unfortunately rarely focused on posture and locomotion,
are providing somewhat firmer bases for functional interpretations of mor
phological features than were possible during the more strictly anecdotal
era of primate field studies.
Direct observations of behavior and ecology are impossible for extinct
organisms, so we must carefully delimit the nature of variations in the be
havior and ecology of living primates and attempt to determine the extent
to which uniformitarian arguments about these features might be employed
to formulate refined models on the life modes of each fossil species.