Comparative Anatomy and Phylogeny of Primate Muscles and Human Evolution

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This book challenges the assumption that morphological data are inherently unsuitable for phylogeny reconstruction, argues that both molecular and morphological phylogenies should play a major role in systematics, and provides the most comprehensive review of the comparative anatomy, homologies and evolution of the head, neck, pectoral and upper limb muscles of primates. Chapters 1 and 2 provide an introduction to the main aims and methodology of the book. Chapters 3 and 4 and Appendices I and II present the data obtained from dissections of the head, neck, pectoral and upper limb muscles of representative members of all the major primate groups including modern humans, and compare these data with the information available in the literature. Appendices I and II provide detailed textual (attachments, innervation, function, variations and synonyms) and visual (high quality photographs) information about each muscle for the primate taxa included in the cladistic study of Chapter 3, thus providing the first comprehensive and up to date overview of the comparative anatomy of the head, neck, pectoral and upper limb muscles of primates. The most parsimonious tree obtained from the cladistic analysis of 166 head, neck, pectoral and upper limb muscle characters in 18 primate genera, and in representatives of the Scandentia, Dermoptera and Rodentia, is fully congruent with the evolutionary molecular tree of Primates, thus supporting the idea that muscle characters are particularly useful to infer phylogenies. The combined anatomical materials provided in this book point out that modern humans have fewer head, neck, pectoral and upper limb muscles than most other living primates, but are consistent with the proposal that facial and vocal communication and specialized thumb movements have probably played an important role in recent human evolution. This book will be of interest to primatologists, comparative anatomists, functional morphologists, zoologists, physical anthropologists, and systematicians, as well as to medical students, physicians and researchers interested in understanding the origin, evolution, homology and variations of the muscles of modern humans.

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Rui Diogo is a biologist undertaking research at the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology of George Washington University (US). He participated in numerous publications, including the edition of the books Catfishes and Gonorynchiformes and ostariophysan interrelationships - a comprehensive review. He is the single author or first author of the books Morphological evolution, aptations, homoplasies, constraints and evolutionary trends - catfishes as a case study on general phylogeny and macroevolution, The origin of higher clades - osteology, myology, phylogeny and evolution of bony fishes and the rise of tetrapods, Muscles of vertebrates - comparative anatomy, evolution, homologies and development, and Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of Gorilla - with notes on the attachments, variations, innervation, synonymy and weight of the muscles. xA0; Bernard Wood is University Professor of Human Origins and directs the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology of George Washington University (USA). His edited publications include Food Acquisition and Processing in Primates and Major Topics in Primate and Human Evolution. He is author or co-author of The Evolution of Early Man, Human Evolution, Koobi Fora Research Project - Hominid Cranial Remains (Vol. 4), Human Evolution - A Very Short Introduction, Photographic and descriptive musculoskeletal atlas of Gorilla - with notes on the attachments, variations, innervation, synonymy and weight of the muscles, and he is the editor of Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution.