INTENSIVE COURSE IN BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
1st Summer School of the European Anthropological Association
16–30 June, 2007, Prague, Czech Republic
Václav Vančata: BIOLOGY AND SYSTEMATICS OF PRIMATES
Charles University, M. D. Rettigové 4, Prague, Czech republic
Annotation
Lecture on Biology and systematics of Primates should present: Basic features of the order Primates and
also those of prosimians and anthropoids, detail information on biology, biogeography, ecology, social
structure and life history of individual families, subfamilies and genera. It will also provide basic knowledge
on behaviour, socioecology and behavioural endocrinology of anthropoid primates with main stress to the
great ape behaviour and social structure.
I. Recent primates - basic definitions, taxonomy, biogeography, ecology
1) Primates - introduction to primatology, basic definitions, taxonomy, biogeography and ecology. Theoretical
aspects of primate phylogeny – theories on macroevolutionary and microevolutionary processes,
adaptive strategy, adaptive and exaptive radiations, life forms, speciation, evolutionary and phylogenetic
systematics. Origin of primates and phylogeny of prosimians, tarsoids and anthropoids – major
differences among prosimians and anthropoids and their phylogenetic meaning
2) Primate ecology and biogeography differences among primate major taxons, types of behaviour and
locomotion, types of social structure
II. Recent primates – characteristics of basic taxonomic groups
3) Prosimians – basic systematics Prosimians and tarsiers, Loriodea – taxonomy, geography, ecology;
Lemuroidea, taxonomy, geography, ecology
5) New World monkeys – basic definitions of individual systematic groups, Callithricidae - taxonomy,
geography, ecology, Cebidae and Atelidae – taxonomy, geography, ecology
7) Old World primates – basic definitions of individual systematic groups, taxonomy, geography, ecology,
cercopithecid and colobid monkeys, basic definitions of individual systematic groups, taxonomy,
geography and ecology of cercopithecid monkeys
9) Old World monkeys – basic definitions of individual systematic groups, taxonomy, geography and ecology
of colobid monkeys, ecology of monkeys and apes
10) Apes – lesser apes and great apes, basic definitions of individual systematic groups, taxonomy,
geography and ecology of hylobatids
11) Great apes – chimpanzee, gorilla a orang-utan – basic definitions of individual species, taxonomy,
geography, ecology and social structure – differences among Asian and African great apes –
monophyletic or polyphyletic group?
12) Orangutans and their basic biological, ecological and ethological features – origin and evolution of
orangutans
13) African apes – gorilla and chimpanzees – similarities and differences, specifitic features of African apes,
ecology and social structure
14) Gorillas – subspecies and their specific features – ecology and behaviour of gorillas – recent
understanding among higland and lowland gorillas
15) Chimpanzees – common chimpanzee and bonobo – ecology, biogeography, social structure and
behaviour, common chimpanzee subspecies and their characteristics. Bonobo and its ecology behaviour
and social structure- sociosexual behaviour in bonobos.
II. Primate adaptations, ecology and behaviour
16) Morphology – body size and its adaptive meaning, feeding adaptations, adaptations of cranium, brain
and sensory organs, adaptations of locomotor apparatus
17) Ecology, reproduction and social structure - platyrrhine and catarrhine monkeys and apes, definition of
ecological niches of individual primate groups, reproductive strategies and social structure, social
structure and behaviour, primate behavioural ecology
18) Locomotion and behaviour – pronograde and antipronograde locomotion, ape locomotion and hominid
bipedality, adaptive meaning of locomotion, locomotion and behaviour, behaviour as an adaptive
mechanism, behaviour as a social mechanism, basic behavioural adaptations, sexual differences in
behaviour
19) Sociobiology, behavioural ecology and socioendocrinology in primates – baboon research of Saposki,
theory of biological market, hormones, growth and stress, hormonal correlates of social and aggressive
behaviour – social structure and reproduction
20) Ontogeny and life histories - meaning of the ontogeny as an adaptive mechanism, heterochronies and
allometry, growth rates and growth regulation, behaviour, morphology and growth mechanisms, sexual
dimorphism and sex differentiation, adaptations of populations
INTENSIVE COURSE IN BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
1st Summer School of the European Anthropological Association
16–30 June, 2007, Prague, Czech Republic
Recommended reading
Boesch C., Boesch-Achermann H., 2000. The Chimpanzees of the Taï forest. Behavioural Ecology and
Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Boesch-Achrmann, H., and Boesch C., 1994: Hominization in the rainforest: the chimpanzee's piece of the
puzzle. Evolutionary Anthropology, 3: 9 - 16.
de Waal F., (ed.) 2001. Tree of Origin. What Primate Behaviour Can Tell Us About Human Social Evolution.
Harvard University Press, Cambridge and London.
Fleagle J. G., 1988: Primate Adaptation and Evolution. Academic Press, Inc., London.
Fleagle J. G., Janson C. and Reed K. E., 1999. Primate Communities. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
Hunt K. D., 1994 b. The evolution of human bipedality: ecology and functional morphology. J. Human Evol.,
26: 183 - 202.
Jablonski N. G. and Chaplin G., 1993: Origin of habitual terrestrial bipedalism in the ancestor of the
Hominidae. J. Human Evol.: 24: 259 - 280.
Janson C.H., 2000: Primate Socio-Ecology: The End of Golden Age. Evol. Anthropology 9: 73-86.
Leigh S. R., 1995 b: Ontogeny and the evolution of body size dimorphism in primates. Antrhopologie, 33: 17
- 28.
Marks J., 1994: Human Biodiversity. Genes, Races, and History. Aldan de Gruyter, New York.
McGrew W. C. 1992: Chimpanzee Material Culture: Implications for Human Evolution. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.
McGrew W. C., Marchant L.F., and Nishida T., 1996: Great Ape Societies. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
Rowe N., 1996: The Pictorial Guide to the Living Primates. Pogonias Press. East Hampton, New York.
Shea B. T., 1990: Dynamic morphology: growth, life history, and ecology in primate evolution. In: J
deRousseau (ed.): Primate Life History and Evolution, pp. 325-352. Wiley-Liss, New York.
Shea B. T., 1995: Ontogenetic scaling and size correction in the comparative study of primate adaptations.
Antrhopologie, 33: 1- 16.
Shoshani J., Groves C. P., Simons E. L. and Gunnell G. F., 1996: Primate phylogeny: morphological vs
molecular results. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 5: 102 - 154.
Wahl F. de, 1991: Peacemaking among Primates. Penguins Books, London
Wrangham R. W., McGrew W. C., de Waal F. B. M. and Heltne P. G. (eds.), 1994: Chimpanzee Cultures.
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Whiten A., Goodall J., McGrew W.C., Nishida T., Reynolds V., Sugiyama Y., Tutin C.E.G., Wrangham R. W.,
Boesch C., 1999. Cultures in Chimpanzees. Nature, 399: 682-685.