Short description:

This volume demonstrates the role of cellular mechanisms producing traits defining primates such as encephalization and various sensory systems. We highlight how genetic analysis, tissue and cell visualization, and merging Evo-Devo with cell biology combine to answer questions central to understanding human and primate evolution.

Long description:

Many complex traits define the human condition, including encephalization and bipedalism. The specific molecular signals and cellular processes producing these traits are the result of dramatic evolutionary change. At the same time, conservation of many of these developmental programs underlie both structure and function. Novel methodologies and techniques allow analysis of the collective behavior of cells, cell shapes, tissues, and organs. This volume demonstrates the essential role of cellular mechanisms in the evolutionary increase in the size and complexity of the primate brain. In addition, and concordant with encephalization, this book documents changes in the muscles and bones associated with the appearance of bipedalism. Genetic changes are the basis of these evolutionary changes, but transformation of genetic information into phenotypic outcomes occurs at the level of the cell, and this is the focus of the book. The goal is to encourage others to adopt evolutionary cell biology as a novel and necessary approach to the genotype-phenotype map of the diversification of primates, human variation, and human evolution. The contributors to this book utilize advances in genetic analysis, visualization of cells and tissues, and the merging of evolutionary developmental biology with evolutionary cell biology to address questions central to understanding the human and primate evolution.

Key Features

• Explores mechanisms underlying trait distribution, dispersal, variation, and evolution through the direct testing of hypotheses especially with respect to patterns of encephalization, certain sensory modalities, and growth and life history specializations.








• Documents the advantages for anthropologists to work at the level of cells focusing on how genes provide instructions for cells to make structure and how environmental influences affect the behavior of cells.








• Illustrates the role cell biology plays with respect to encephalization, neocortical expansion, variation in facial morphology, locomotion, and dexterity.








• Describes novel methodologies and techniques allowing analysis of how the collective behavior of cells shapes tissues and organs.

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Related Titles

Ripamonti, U., ed. Induction of Bone Formation in Primates: The Transforming Growth Factor-beta 3 (ISBN 978-0-3673-7740-3).

Gordon, M. S., et al., eds. Animal Locomotion: Physical Principles and Adaptations (ISBN 978-0-3676-5795-6)

Bianchi, L. Developmental Neurobiology (ISBN 978-0-8153-4482-7)

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" ? these volumes will be of broad interest to biological anthropologists and demonstrates that cell biology can be incorporated into the study of any biological trait.? In addition to the wide variety of complex traits covered by the authors, an equally impressive range of cellular and molecular concepts and techniques are included.? The chapters within these volumes provide an excellent survey [and will be] a valuable resource for biological anthropologists for year to come."? K. E. Willmore ? American Journal of Biological Anthropology.

Table of Contents:

Volume 1 Evolutionary Cell Processes in Primates: bone, brains, and muscle

Chapter 1 Introduction: Evolutionary cell biology in anthropological research

Joan T. Richtsmeier and M. Kathleen Pitirri

Chapter 2 The role of bone and cartilage cells in the evolution of bipedalism

Cambell Rolian

Chapter 3 Cellular processes in limb development and primate evolution

Philip L. Reno, Kelsey M. Kjosness, and Allison L. Machnicki

Chapter 4 A muscular perspective on human evolution: Locomotor insights from analyses of primate muscle architecture and fiber type

Andrew S. Deane, Jason M. Organ, and Magdalena N. Muchlinski

Chapter 5 Evolution of the encephalized human brain: How did we become exceptional?

Kevin Alloway and Kevin Flaherty

Chapter 6 Primate Cognition: cellular processes and the developmental mechanisms in brain expansion

Maria Carolina Marchetto and Katerina Semendeferi

Chapter 7 The role of primate embryogenesis in encephalization and neocortical expansion

Andrew Halley

Chapter 8 How gene expression can induce correlated changes in brain and skull systems

Neus Martínez-Abadías, Rub?n Gonz?lez, Roger Mateu, Jaume Sastre, Alexandre Robert-Moreno, Jim Swoger, Susan M. Motch Perrine, Kazuhiko Kawasaki, Joan Richtsmeier, and James Sharpe

Chapter 9 Cellular dynamics and the developmental basis for craniofacial variation in evolution and disease

Nathan M. Young, Ralph S. Marcucio, Benedikt Hallgrímsson, Heather A. Richbourg, and Rebecca M. Green