Original paper
Introduction of the guest editors
Okada, Morihiko; Preuschoft, Holger
Zeitschrift für Morphologie und Anthropologie Band 83 Heft 2-3 (2002), p. 145 - 148
published: Apr 25, 2002
ArtNo. ESP168008302000, Price: 19.00 €
Abstract
The seemingly wide and deep cleft between humans and “animals” becomes much narrower, if we consider not only the traditional companions of humans in the temperate zones, the domestic mammals and the classic game animals, but also that group of animals to which our own species belongs: the primates. Since long time, at least since Linnaeus, the morphological parallels have been emphasized and used as the guidelines for taxonomic grouping and as the basis for evolutionary hypotheses. During the second half of the 20th century, huge piles of information about primate behavior have been accumulated. These data show convincingly that similarities between Homo and the other primates are by no means confined to morphology. Instead, the behavior among all primates shows impressive parallels as well. Although the most basic sort of behavior, namely locomotion, seems to be quite different in view of the unique human bipedality, there are clear similarities between our species and other primates, including their joined affection to threedimensional substrates. Coarse classifications, like quadruped, biped, brachiator, knuckle-walker etc. suggest categorical differences between primate locomotor groups. Analysis of the subtle movements, from which basic locomotor classifications arise, however, shows clear-cut parallels across groups.
Keywords
humans • animals • morphology • primates • mammals