Overview

Tarsiiformes, or tarsiers for short, are a group of living species of special interest to primatologists because their combination of derived and ancient characteristics make them pivotal to understanding the roots of primate evolution. These small-bodied, nocturnal, solitary creatures resemble lower primates in their behavior but genetically, DNA evidence aligns them more closely with higher primates, such as monkeys, apes, and humans. These astounding creatures exhibit an ability found in no other living mammal - they can turn their heads 180 degrees in either direction to see both prey and predators. The world's only exclusively carnivorous primate, they eat live food (primarily insects, but the occasional vertebrate, such as lizards, snakes, or frogs will also do). This unique combination of behavior and anatomy makes the tarsier an especially interesting and controversial animal for study among primate behaviorists, evolutionists, and taxonomists, who view the tarsiers as ""living fossils"" that link past and present, lower and higher primates in the long chain of evolutionary history. This new volume presents alternative and contrasting perspectives on the most debated question

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Patricia C. Wright is a professor of anthropology at Suny, Stony Brook and director of the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments, Stony Brook and Madagascar. Elwyn L. Simons is the head of the Division of Fossil Primates of the Duke University Primate Center where, with Wright, he established one of the world's only viable captive tarsier colonies. A member of the National Academies of Science, he is the author of Primate Evolution: An Introduction to Man's Place in Nature. Sharon Gursky is an assistant professor of anthropology at Texas A&M University.

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