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Developments in Primatology: Progress and Prospects Series Editors: Louise Barrett and Russell Tuttle For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/5852 Judith Masters • Marco Gamba • Fabien Génin Editors Leaping Ahead Advances in Prosimian Biology Editors Judith Masters Marco Gamba Department of Zoology Dipartimento di Biologia Animale University of Fort Hare e dell’Uomo Alice , South Africa Università degli Studi di Torino Torino, Italy Fabien Génin Department of Zoology University of Fort Hare Alice , South Africa ISBN 978-1-4614-4510-4 ISBN 978-1-4614-4511-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-4511-1 Springer New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2012948133 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 This work is subject to copyright. 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Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Frontispiece Participants in the Prosimians 2007 International Congress, Ithala, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, 15–19 July 2007 We dedicate this volume to our colleagues Daniel Montagnon and Bjoern Siemers, whose premature deaths have left us and the fi eld of prosimian biology much the poorer. Foreword Leaping Ahead takes its place in a series of collective and synthetic volumes updating current knowledge on prosimians. Initiated by Robert Martin, Gerald Doyle, and Alan Walker in 1974, and continued by Gerald Doyle and Robert Martin 5 years later, these volumes have become a recurrent necessity for the prosimian research community. It is no longer necessary to justify meetings or publications dedicated to prosimian studies: the gathering of papers synthesizing the latest contributions to the fi eld provides researchers with an irreplaceable bibliographic tool which, com- plemented by publications in specialized international journals, is essential to all scienti fi c disciplines. In 1979, Gerald Doyle and Robert Martin questioned the practice of restricting these meetings to a fraction of primatologists, with the risk of seeing “prosimianol- ogy” become an autonomous discipline. This risk has not been realized, since prosimian researchers also frequent primatology meetings; but we can question the dichotomy between studies of so-called higher and prosimian primates. There are probably many reasons for this distinction. One of them is methodological: studying the biology and the sociology of nocturnal animals requires very different methods from those designed for analyzing and decoding the behavior of gregarious, diurnal animals. But other, more, profound reasons may also play a role. When Linnaeus proposed the term “Primates” in 1758 for a group formerly known as “Simia” or “Anthropoidea,” he was implicitly placing them before the others, which seemed sensible at the time. A few decades later, in the same spirit, and basing his reasoning on the “degeneration” of the hand, Blainville created the “Secundates,” “Tertiates,” and “Quaternates” for the other mammalian orders. This nomenclature disappeared rapidly, but Linnaeus’ Primates survived. This term could as well have been replaced by “Quadrumanes,” created by Cuvier, but the notion of Primates is so deeply entrenched that no one would dare question it, despite the birth of Darwinism and modern theories which swept away the idea of linearity of evolution. This persis- tence is not fortuitous, and many people, including scientists, still regard primates as “primary” with an innate hierarchy of “higher” primates and prosimians. ix x Foreword There is also the fact that many primatological studies are undertaken to improve our understanding of the evolutionary and paleontological history of humans: research on so-called higher primates tends to focus on anatomical and behavioral characteristics associated with hominization, while prosimian research is often viewed as revealing ancient primate characteristics. A comprehensive study of primate evolution requires a synthesis of elements from the anthropological and zoological approaches to primatology, and Leaping Ahead re fl ects such a synthesis. The book reveals the preoccupations of our time, and several chapters discuss the loss of biodiversity and habitat destruction, consequences of climate change, and overexploitation of forest ecosystems. The fi elds of phylogeny and systematics are also included, and the multiplicity of newly created taxa urges more in-depth research into prosimian diversity. Particular attention has been paid to species previously ignored because they are rare or localized, or because they were previously confused with other taxa. The fi eld of paleontology is also advancing, allowing a more global vision of prosimians. Ecological studies produce new data on interspeci fi c competition, dietary strategies, habitat use, social structures, ecophysi- ology, and much more. New technologies have been applied to several fi elds, while more classical methods have revealed unanticipated cerebral capacities in mouse lemurs. The study of vocalizations is undergoing renewal, providing behavioral data to support or challenge genetic taxonomic assignments. This broad diversity of approaches shows that prosimians still attract much interest among students and researchers and that their study allows scientists to ask essential questions, to which there are often unique answers. Clapiers, France Pierre Charles-Dominique Editors’ Preface The fi rst international conference dedicated to prosimian primates was held in April, 1972 at the Institute of Archaeology of the University of London and was organized by Bob Martin, Alan Walker, and Gerry Doyle. The resultant publication of the conference proceedings ( Prosimian Biology , Duckworth, London, 1974) became the “Bible” for prosimian primatologists working in the last decades of the twenti- eth century. In June 1993, a conference dedicated to the nocturnal prosimians was held at Duke University, in Durham, NC. Kay Izard, Lon Alterman, and Gerry Doyle once again issued a volume of conference proceedings, entitled Creatures of the Dark: The Nocturnal Prosimians (Plenum Press, New York, 1995), that became a mile- stone in the development of prosimian studies. In September 1995, the Duke meeting was followed by the International Conference on the Biology and Conservation of Prosimians, held at Chester Zoo in the UK. The proceedings were edited by Caroline Harcourt, Robin Crompton, and Anna Feistner and published as a supplement to Folia Primatologica in 1998. This volume served as a further focal point for prosimian biologists to re fl ect on the growth of their fi eld, and it became as indispensable as the previous proceedings volumes had been. A decade elapsed before a fourth conference was convened, and work on prosimians— particularly on the Malagasy lemuriforms—had blossomed in the interim. The Prosimians 2007 International Congress took place in mid-July, 2007, in Ithala Game Reserve, South Africa. The fi nal program was comprised of 77 spoken presentations spread over four-and-a-half days and 26 posters. One hundred participants attended the conference, representing research and conservation institutions in 12 countries. Of particular note was the strong representation by participants from developing countries, who contributed one-third of the presentations. Prosimian xi xii Editors’ Preface primates are found in the tropical and subtropical forests and woodlands of Africa, South-east Asia, and Madagascar, and the majority of countries in which they occur qualify as developing countries. For the conference to have a meaningful impact on the conservation and general understanding of prosimians, it was clear that a sub- stantial percentage of the participants should be drawn from these habitat countries. Funds to make this possible were generously supplied by Conservation International, the University of Fort Hare, the Wenner-Gren

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