BIO A 370 A: The Nonhuman Primates

Winter 2021 Full Syllabus and Schedule at a Glance

Course Overview & Learning Goals

This course will introduce you to our closest relatives, the nonhuman primates. We will review their origins, morphology, major evolutionary trends, and modern taxonomic relationships. We’ll also focus on distribution and habitat in relation to behavioral and morphological adaptations,  conservation, ethnoprimatology, disease transmission, field research, and the cultural roles that nonhuman primates play in human communities across the globe.  You should leave this course with the following knowledge:

• primate taxonomy and the ability to recognize and identify primates by their Suborder, Infraorder, Family, Genus and Species according to Fleagle's taxonomy
• core concepts in the distribution, morphology, social organization, behavior, and reproduction of primates
• major themes in current primatology as they relate to the species/genera reviewed in this course.
• interaction and importance of conservation, ethics, and human-nonhuman priamte relationships in regard to primatological study 

Readings

• Primate Adaptation & Evolution (3rd Ed.) John G. Fleagle,  San Diego: Elsevier, 2013 – Select chapters available on Canvas
• A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons Robert M. Sapolsky, New York: Touchstone, 2002.
• Supplemental readings available on Canvas