The Missing Lemur Link: An Ancestral Step in the Evolution of Human Behaviour

Lemurs share a common distant ancestor with humans. Following their own evolutionary pathway, lemurs provide the ideal model to shed light on the behavioural traits of primates including conflict management, communication strategies and society building and how these aspects of social living relate to those found in the anthropoid primates. Adopting a comparative approach throughout, lemur behaviour is cross-examined with that of monkeys, apes and humans. This book reviews and expands upon the newest fields of research in lemur behavioural biology, including recent analytical approaches that have so far been limited to studies of haplorrhine primates. Different methodological approaches are harmonised in this volume to break conceptual walls between both primate taxa and different disciplines. Through a focus on the methodologies behind lemur behaviour and social interactions, future primate researchers will be encouraged to produce directly comparable results.

Author: Ivan Norscia, Elisabetta Palagi
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 06/09/2016
Pages: 300
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.70lbs
Size: 10.08h x 7.12w x 0.76d
ISBN: 9781107016088

About the Author
Norscia, Ivan: - Ivan Norscia carries out research at the Natural History Museum, University of Pisa, Italy. He started investigating the behavioural ecology of lemurs in dry and wet forests of Madagascar and through his research has contributed to the redefinition of a lemur species (Avahi meridionalis). His research later expanded to the behaviour of monkeys, apes and humans.Palagi, Elisabetta: - Elisabetta Palagi is a department member of the Natural History Museum, University of Pisa, Italy. Her research centres upon lemur individual recognition and multimodal signalling, which has expanded to other primate and non-primate animals. Most recently, in conjunction with Ivan Norscia, she has adopted a cross-species comparison approach to shed light on the biological foundation of human behaviour.