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 addressmore specific questions or to find specific data.

Covers all primate clades, from strepsirrhines to hominoids, and from the earliest primate fossils and close relatives to the evolution of modern Homo sapiens

FOREWARD.- Introduction.- On the primitiveness, prehensility, and opposability of the primate hand: the contributions of Frederic Wood Jones and John Russell Napier.- The Primate Wrist.- Morphological Diversity in the Digital Rays of Primate Hands.- The Role of Genes and Development in the Evolution of the Primate Hand.- Organization and Evolution of Neural Control of the Hand in Primates: Motor Systems, Sensory Feedback, and Laterality.- Anatomy, Function, and Evolution of the Primate Hand Musculature.- Comparative and Functional Morphology of the Primate Hand Integument.- Functional Morphology of the Primate Hand: Recent Approaches using Biomedical Imaging, Computer Modeling, and Engineering Methods.- Experimental Research on Hand Use and Function in Primates.- Biomechanics of the Human Hand: From Stone Tools to Computer Keyboards.- Functions of the Hand in Primates.- Patterns, Variability, and Flexibility of Hand Posture during Locomotion in Primates.- The Hands of Paleogene Primates.- The Hands of Subfossil Lemurs.- The Hands of Non-Hominoid Anthropoids.- The Hands of Miocene Hominoids.- Evolution of the Early Hominin Hand.- The Evolution of the Hand in Pleistocene Homo.