Note to editors: Friderun Ankel-Simons can be reached at 919-309-1601
DURHAM, N.C. -- Like mapping a sometimes trackless jungle, primatologist Friderun Ankel-Simons, in her new book Primate Anatomy, has mounted an exhaustive expedition into the complexities of the form and function of humans' closest relatives. And like any good scientific expedition, she has returned from her journey with much knowledge, but also many unanswered questions.
Published this month by Academic Press, the book emphasizes how much humans have yet to learn about their own family tree, even as they hack away at its branches by causing widespread extinctions, said Ankel-Simons.
"We are destroying the very creatures that we need to study to find out who we are," she said. "This planet doesn't need us. But we need our planet to survive, so we have to take care of it."
Ankel-Simons, who has long worked with her husband primatologist Elwyn Simons, scientific director of the Duke Primate Center, has drawn heavily for her book on new findings from the center's living lemurs and other prosimians, as well as its extensive primate fossil collection developed by Simons. For example, the book discusses new lemur species, such as the agile golden crowned sifaka that was first discussed and described by Simons only in 1988.
"Among his other achievements, Elwyn's negotiations with the government of Madagascar opened the country for scientific research in 1981, after a long hiatus," said Ankel-Simons. "Then, many scientists began working there, increasing the information about lemurs enormously." Thus, said Ankel-Simons, the new book, which is a follow-up to an earlier edition published in 1983, contains a much larger section about lemurs.
Besides detailed explanations of the anatomy, locomotion, diet and other
data about a multitude of primates, the book also highlights the many
controversies and
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Contact: Dennis Meredith
dennis.meredith@duke.edu
919-681-8054
Duke University
13-Sep-1999