Adaptation and Behavior in the Primate Fossil Record

Few topics in functional morphology have been discussed as extensively with so little consensus as adaptation. Controversies swirl around both theoretical and methodological issues in the study of adaptation. Persistent questions concern definitions of adaptation, criteria for recognizing adaptations, and how to integrate phylogenetic and functional data. Here we review debates about how one identifies an adaptation, discuss recent developments in the study of adaptation, and focus on how these relate to our ability to reconstruct behavior in the fossil record. In keeping with the theme of this volume we will take our examples from the vast literature on primate functional anatomy, a resource that in many respects is more extensive and detailed than that for other orders of mammals. At the same time we will draw on the literature of other animals to introduce perspectives on the study of adaptation that have not been considered extensively by primatologists, but which hold considerable promise for future research.

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