Overview

This volume acknowledges and celebrates the contributions of Dr. Frederick S. Szalay to the field of Mammalian Evolutionary Morphology. Professor Szalay has published about 200 articles, four monographs, and six books on this subject. Throughout his career Professor Szalay has been a strong advocate for biologically and evolutionarily meaningful character analysis.  In his view, this can be accomplished only through an integrated strategy of functional, adaptational, and historical analysis. Dr. Szalay worked on several different mammalian groups during his career, and the contributions to this volume reflect his broad perspective. Chapters focus on Primates, a group to which Professor Szalay dedicated much of his career.  However, other mammalian groups on which he conducted a significant amount of research, such as marsupials and xenarthrans, are also covered in the volume. This book will be of interest to professionals and graduate students in a wide variety of related fields, including functional morphology, systematics, vertebrate paleontology, mammalogy, primatology, biological anthropology, and evolutionary biology.      

Full Product Details

Author:   Eric J. Sargis ,  Marian Dagosto
Publisher:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Imprint:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Edition:   1st ed. 2008. 2nd printing 2009
Dimensions:   Width: 21.00cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 27.90cm
Weight:   1.921kg
ISBN:  

9781402069963

ISBN 10:   1402069960
Pages:   439
Publication Date:   26 May 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Non-primate Mammals.- Earliest Evidence of Deltatheroida (Mammalia: Metatheria) from the Early Cretaceous of North America.- Evolution of Hind Limb Proportions in Kangaroos (Marsupialia: Macropodoidea).- Changing Views in Paleontology: The Story of a Giant (Megatherium, Xenarthra).- Evolutionary Morphology of the Tenrecoidea (Mammalia) Forelimb Skeleton.- Postcranial Morphology of Apheliscus and Haplomylus (Condylarthra, Apheliscidae): Evidence for a Paleocene Holarctic Origin of Macroscelidea.- Postcranial Skeleton of the Upper Paleocene (Itaboraian) “Condylarthra” (Mammalia) of Itaboraí Basin, Brazil.- Postcranial Osteology of Mammals from Salla, Bolivia (Late Oligocene): Form, Function, and Phylogenetic Implications.- Evolution of the Proximal Third Phalanx in Oligocene-Miocene Equids, and the Utility of Phalangeal Indices in Phylogeny Reconstruction.- Adaptive Zones and the Pinniped Ankle: A Three-Dimensional Quantitative Analysis of Carnivoran Tarsal Evolution.- Primates.- The Biogeographic Origins of Primates and Euprimates: East, West, North, or South of Eden?.- Evaluating the Mitten-Gliding Hypothesis for Paromomyidae and Micromomyidae (Mammalia, “Plesiadapiformes”) Using Comparative Functional Morphology of New Paleogene Skeletons.- Morphological Diversity in the Skulls of Large Adapines (Primates, Adapiformes) and Its Systematic Implications.- Primate Tibiae from the Middle Eocene Shanghuang Fissure-Fillings of Eastern China.- Rooneyia, Postorbital Closure, and the Beginnings of the Age of Anthropoidea.- Epitensoric Position of the Chorda Tympani in Anthropoidea: a New Synapomorphic Character, with Remarks on the Fissura Glaseri in Primates.- Evolutionary Morphology of the Guenon Postcranium and Its Taxonomic Implications.- Analysis of Selected Hominoid Joint Surfaces Using Laser Scanning and Geometric Morphometrics: A Preliminary Report.- Comparative Primate Bone Microstructure: Records of Life History, Function, and Phylogeny.        

Reviews

From the reviews: <p>'A tribute to Professor Frederick S. Szalay, and a state-of-the-art overview of many of his favorite topics in primate and mammalian morphology and paleontology.', Philip Gingerich, University of Michigan, USA <p>a ~Frederick S. Szalay is an internationally renowned paleontologist and evolutionary biologist who has made important contributions to the study of fossil mammals, especially Paleogene primates, comparative and functional morphology, and evolutionary theory and practice. This excellent collection of original articles written by his close colleagues, and edited by two of his former students, is a fitting tribute to the breadth and scope of Prof. Szalaya (TM)s research interests, as well as an important retrospective of the enduring impact that his writings and scholarship have had on the field of mammalian evolution.a (TM), Terry Harrison, New York University, USA <p> This book is a fine tribute to the work of Frederick Szalay, whose many seminal contributions to the field of mammalian evolutionary morphology span a wide range of issues. a ] Individual articles are well referenced and suitably illustrated with pertinent photographs, line drawings, tables, charts, and graphs. In addition to a general subject index, a taxonomic index is provided for ease in finding material on select taxa. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level graduate students, researchers, and professionals in evolutionary morphology, paleontology, and comparative anatomy. (D. A. Brass, Choice, Vol. 46 (4), December, 2008)

Author Information

"Eric J. Sargis: (Ph.D., City University of New York [CUNY], a part of the New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology [NYCEP]) is an Associate Professor of Anthropology. His dissertation research was on the functional postcranial morphology of treeshrews (Scandentia) and its significance for understanding primate supraordinal relationships and the phylogenetics of archontan mammals. Eric has also worked on the evolutionary morphology of Old World monkeys (Primates, Cercopithecidae) and marsupials. He has conducted fieldwork in Malaysia (1994), Indonesia (1994), Ethiopia (1996, 1997), Bolivia (2001), Peru (2001, 2002, 2003), Madagascar (2003), Brazil (2005), and Cambodia (2006). Eric is also an Assistant Curator of Mammalogy at the Peabody Museum of Natural History, the Treasurer of the Society for the Study of Mammalian Evolution (SSME), and the Book Review Editor of the Journal of Mammalian Evolution (JME). Marian Dagosto: The focus of her research efforts is the understanding of the functional, adaptive, and phylogenetic significance of the anatomy of the limb skeleton in extant and fossil prosimian primates. The fossil members of this group, the Adapidae and Omomyidae, are the earliest known primates, and all living primates are thought to have descended from these forms. This group of primates, then, can provide clues to the early adaptive history of the order, and help identify the probable selective forces which shaped the basic morphology of this group. She has been concentrating on two primary areas of inquiry in this field. The first is the functional analysis of the limb anatomy of fossil primates, including description of newly discovered primate remains, an analysis of the probable locomotor behaviors of fossil species, and the phylogenetic implications of their morphological features. Current projects in this area include analysis of the postcranium of the omomyid primates and of the Eocene Chinese eosimiids. The second area is the ""ecomorphology"" of primate locomotion: the documentation of locomotor behavior and its ecological context (relationship to food resources, forest type) and its relationship to interspecific differences in morphology in living primates. Her current project in this area is the positional behavior of the Philippine tarsier, Tarsius syrichta. She is also investigating geographic variation in skull size and shape in the genus Tarsius and its implications for the phylogeny and biogeographic history of these primates."

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