Cousins: Our Primate Relatives - Hardcover

Cousins: Our Primate Relatives is a timely reminder of where we as humans have come from and what we are doing to our nearest living relatives. We share over 98 per cent of our genetic makeup with chimps and are so biologically close to them that we must have shared a common ancestor not much more than 5 million years ago. Robin Dunbar and Louise Barrett are both academic experts on primates at Liverpool University but also have good track records of popularising what can be a highly technical subject. Cousins is the book to accompany the BBC TV series of the same name but is much more than just a spin-off. It stands in its own right as a fascinating and beautifully illustrated guide (including stunning colour photos, diagrams, maps, further reading and relevant web sites) to our relatives, their ways of life and habits--some endearing some less so but then we as humans have no ground to make invidious comparisons. Amazingly, there are some 230 living species of primate and there were many more who are now extinct, including at least 15 species of ancient human relatives, who have lived over the last 4 million years or so. Dunbar and Barrett describe and illustrate the whole range of living primates from the mouse lemur, weighing around 30 grammes to the gorilla at 175 kg. Recent study of how primates behave in the wild has revealed that many are much more complex and intelligent than previously realised. Chimps can not only use tools but also pass information from generation to generation, in other words they have culture, something that until recently was thought to be a human preserve. As Dunbar and Barrett write, "our shared history perhaps gives us a special affinity with our primate cousins, an affinity that brings with it special responsibilities". Unfortunately, many of these cousins are now endangered species, hopefully this timely book will help prevent their untimely demise. --Douglas Palmer

The primates are said to have given rise to human beings. This book, based upon the BBC television series of the same name, explores the latest theories about their behaviour and evolution.