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Title: Primate Taxonomy by Colin P. Groves ISBN: 1-56098-872-X Publisher: Smithsonian Institution Press Pub. Date: April, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $65.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An authoritative treatment.
Comment: Extensive taxonomic revisions are usually published in monographic series by natural history museums, distributed to a handful of academic institutions the world over, and relegated to shelves in the bowels of libraries where they are consulted on occasion by a few specialists in each scientific generation. That Colin Groves' latest taxonomic revision is published in an attractive volume and sold on amazon.com testifies to the importance of primate taxonomy to many disciplines. I've read it from cover to cover. This revision deserves the attention.
Groves' introductory chapters describe theories and traditional methods in taxonomy, and provide useful historical context, as well as insight into his own viewpoints. For primatologists without taxonomic experience, this account will de-mystify the discipline and allow the process to be easily visualized and understood. For fellow taxonomists, Groves' descriptions of his methods and his mindset are invaluable for interpreting his conclusions, and for comparing notes. Also extremely useful are Groves' remarks both on the comparative excellence of primate holdings at major natural history museums worldwide, and on the influence and thought of past taxonomists. Knowledge like this is very truly the province of the specialist, and is very hard to come by-- close familiarity with the holdings of primate collections in museums worldwide can only be gained through expensive travel and extensive examinations, and intimate understanding of the viewpoints of taxonomists of decades and centuries past requires a comprehensive familiarity with countless old and often obscure descriptions, revisions, and monographs.
As for Groves' treatment of the primates, it is different, fresh, and full of monumental splitting (he recognizes about 330 species). Possibly it will be hard for some workers in primatology and mammalogy to stomach, as it certainly disrupts familiarity with relative rank of various taxa, and with figures of species richness in all groups. However, as many or more will welcome it as a long-needed reassessment of primate diversity, which in other current treatments is woefully underestimated. Groves has discovered over time, via careful museum research, that a large number of primate taxa named long ago but later uncritically synonymized and soon enough forgotten, are actually distinctive and recognizable species. Such taxonomic resurrections turn conservationists' attention to long-overlooked populations of primates that are deserving of high-concern conservation status. Changes in taxonomy lead to changes in policy, and this without doubt will be the most important effect of Groves' new book. An additional very useful contribution is that the book highlights and summarizes the flood of new primate taxa discovered during fieldwork in the tropics in recent years.
Of course it is important to remember, as Groves himself notes, that no taxonomic revision is the last word on the subject. In the case of primates, new species will continue to be described from the world's tropical regions, and many of the taxa Groves lists as provisional will with further research be shown to be undeserving of the rank he bestows on them. Nevertheless, Groves' take on primate taxonomy is without doubt a much more accurate characterization of living primate species diversity than other current and more traditional arrangements. For the large number of people who work with, write about, or make decisions regarding primates, this book should be considered the authoritative reference for identifying the current name, taxonomic rank, or uniqueness of a primate population. It is a most excellent contribution.
Rating: 4
Summary: A monkey puzzle tree¿.
Comment: Finally, Primate Taxonomy has appeared- before this, I had heard references to it at primatological gatherings. Colin Groves needs no introduction in the area of taxonomy of many non-primate species, most recently, in resolving the question whether the African bush elephant is a subspecies, or a species in its own right (the latter). But it is probably fair to say that Colin's greatest achievement has been, the taxonomy of nonhuman primate (NHP) species. So what is Primate Taxonomy like? First, although a work aimed at a professional audience, there is much that can be appreciated by a non-scholarly audience interested in NHPs. The first few chapters deal with taxonomy, its history, and how it is done to-day. Taxonomy is the science of identifying species, placing them in the system designed by Linnaeus and familiar to all biology students, which assigns to each species a double Latin name; the first indicates the genus to which the species belongs, while the second is specific and unique to the species, eg, the rhesus monkey is Macaca mulatta, and the sacred baboon, Papio hamadryas. Related genera (like Macaca and Papio) are included in the "tribe" of the Papionini, which is part of the "subfamily" Cercopithecinae, which is part of the "family" Cercopithecidae, which is part of the "superfamily" of the Cercopithecoidea. This way, each species has its own place in a tree-like, hierarchical structure. But there is a snag: what, exactly, is a species? At first glance, this may seem obvious, but it is not. Appearances may be deceiving, with animals which look alike nevertheless being different species (the owl monkey, where chromosomal differences differentiate between very similar animals); conversely, animals that differ strikingly in their appearance may be of the same species (the historic misidentification of some gibbon species where there is sexual dimorphism in colour, as two species), and the history of taxonomy is littered with misidentifications of species. Groves provides clear descriptions of different attempts to define what makes a species, and favours the "traditional" definition, which includes a species being a population with its own ecological niche and limited distribution which does not interbreed (except in cases where territories may overlap) with another species, and which has a common behavioural repertoire distinct from other populations. Unfortunately for the taxonomist, the essential components of this (or any) definition of a species are often not known, and the only materials available are skins and skeletons (where, in case of some, it is not even known exactly where they were collected). On the other hand, in modern times, the traditional morphological criteria derived from skins and bones can be amplified by DNA analysis and other molecular biological markers, chromosome analysis, and by an increasing knowledge of behaviour, and Groves has, wherever possible, used such data in compiling his book. However, having identified a species, the taxonomist is not there yet: any species with a wide distribution covering a number of different "living conditions", or where rivers separate different populations (as in the Amazon or Congo basins) will probably have subspecies. Reading those first chapters makes one aware of the amount of work involved in the bulk of the book, where, going down the branches of the taxonomic tree, Groves lists the species and subspecies of all NHPs, from lemurs, lorises, bushbabies and tarsiers, through the New World monkeys and Old World monkeys to the great apes (Homo sapiens is listed at the very end but receives little discussion). There are brief summaries of the main features of families, subfamilies, tribes, etc, but the focus is on the species level where a general description of the genus is followed by one of a species including a list of the scientific names that species may have had since first described. This is rather helpful because one still comes across superseded names. After the description and distribution of a species, its subspecies are listed, starting with the type species (eg, Macaca fascicularis fascicularis), with for each, the characteristics which make it different, as well as the distribution. Two impressions emerge: first, the enormous variety of NHP species and subspecies that exist; and that in a world that seems to become smaller daily, new species are still being discovered, even where very little NHP habitat is left, such as on Madagascar. And this is surely the second impression, that many species, or their subspecies, are fast becoming vulnerable/threatened/endangered. So should you buy this book? If your profession is dealing with primate taxonomy in a serious way (zoos, conservation groups, government and NGO environmental and foreign aid agencies, university departments) the book is essential because of its profound scholarship. Nevertheless, I do have a few quibbles: the major one is that it would have been very good to have a summary table at the end of the book which allowed a quick overview of the proposed taxonomy. Now, if one wants to know how many subspecies of Macaca mulatta there are, for instance, one has to go to the relevant chapter and count them as listed; which is not made easier because the book's print is rather fine, and while, following convention, all scientific names are in italics, they are not otherwise highlighted and a brief entry can easily be missed. Likewise, short of counting, I could not find out how many species of NHP Groves thinks there are, and how many subspecies, overall. Such numbers would be nice to know in arguments about biodiversity and conservation. For non-taxonomists, it might have been helpful to include a kind of diagram of a "standard" NHP divided (bushmeat-like?), into portions so descriptions of fur colour distributions could be read more easily; in the text, for instance, terms like "dorsum", "saddle", "rump", "haunch" and "lumbar region", although strictly speaking referring to different parts, could be confusing. But these are minor points: Primate Taxonomy will be a tool, and subject for discussions for many years to come. It represents an outstanding feat of scholarship.
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Title: The Primate Fossil Record by Walter Carl Hartwig ISBN: 0521663156 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 11 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $190.00 |
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Title: Primate Adaptation and Evolution by John Fleagle ISBN: 0122603419 Publisher: Academic Press Pub. Date: 11 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $59.95 |
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Title: Primate Males : Causes and Consequences of Variation in Group Composition by Peter M. Kappeler ISBN: 0521658462 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 04 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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Title: Primate Communities by J. G. Fleagle, Charles Janson, Kaye Reed ISBN: 0521629675 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 14 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $37.00 |
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Title: Primate Anatomy : An Introduction by Friderun Ankel-Simons ISBN: 0120586703 Publisher: Academic Press Pub. Date: 03 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $64.95 |
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