This book demonstrates how the primate hand combines both primitive and novel morphology, both general function with specialization, and both a remarkable degree of diversity within some clades and yet general similarity across many others. Across the chapters, different authors have addressed a variety of specific questions and provided their perspectives, but all explore the main themes described above to provide an overarching primitive primate hand thread to the book. Each chapter provides an in-depth review and critical account of the available literature, a balanced interpretation of the evidence from a variety of perspectives, and prospects for future research questions. In order to make this a useful resource for researchers at all levels, the basic structure of each chapter is the same, so that information can be easily consulted from chapter to chapter. An extensive reference list is provided at the end of each chapter so the reader has additional resources to address more specific questions or to find specific data.

Tracy L. Kivell Animal Postcranial Evolution (APE) Lab, Skeletal Biology Research Centre, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, GermanyPierre Lemelin Division of Anatomy, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, CanadaBrian G. RichmondDivision of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA Daniel SchmittAnimal Locomotion Lab, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA