Knuckle-walking Apes

Chimpanzees and Gorillas

• The New Chimpanzee : A Twenty-First-Century Portrait Of Our Closest Kin by Craig B. Stanford (2018)
  • With wit and lucidity, Stanford explains what the past two decades of chimpanzee field research has taught us about the origins of human social behavior, the nature of aggression and communication, and the divergence of humans and apes from a common ancestor. Drawing on his extensive observations of chimpanzee behavior and social dynamics, Stanford adds to our knowledge of chimpanzees' political intelligence, sexual power plays, violent ambition, cultural diversity, and adaptability.
• Chimpanzees And Human Evolution by Martin Muller (2017)
  • Chimpanzees offer scientists an unmatched view of what distinguishes humanity from its apelike ancestors. Based on evidence from the hominin fossil record and extensive morphological, developmental, and genetic data, Chimpanzees and Human Evolution makes the case that the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans was chimpanzee-like. It most likely lived in African rainforests around eight million years ago, eating fruit and walking on its knuckles. Readers will learn why chimpanzees are a better model for the last common ancestor than bonobos, gorillas, or orangutans.
• Encountering Gorillas: A Chronicle Of Discovery, Exploitation, Understanding, And Survival by James Newman (2013)
  • Newman presents a poignant review of our relationship with the African gorilla from earliest European contact to the present, and reflects on the future of our fellow primate. Much as Barry Lopez's Of Wolves and Men (1978) traced the long human history of fear, mistrust, and ignorance surrounding our view of wolves, so does Newman catalog over two centuries of myth and misperception about gorillas. This sometimes heartbreaking exploration will be of keen interest to any reader concerned with the effects of human development on the ecology of the African continent and its gorillas. (Library Journal review excerpt)
• The Song Of The Ape : Understanding The Languages Of Chimpanzees by Andrew Halloran (2012)
  • Scientists have been obsessed for decades with teaching apes how to communicate using sign language. Washoe and Nim Chimpsky, as well as the gorilla Koko, are some famous subjects of these grand experiments. Less effort has been devoted to the study of the natural vocalizations used within chimpanzee social groups. While some scientists may refuse to concede a language capacity to chimpanzees, it is clear that attempts to understand how chimps naturally communicate are as scientifically relevant as teaching them a human form of communication. (Library Journal review excerpt)
• Mountain Gorillas : Biology, Conservation, And Coexistence by Gene Eckhart (2008)
  • This book describes efforts to save the mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mountain Gorillas, primarily an effort at conservation advocacy, is directed at policy makers and research funders worldwide. Because of that, much of the text describes the political and social context of gorilla conservation in this troubled area. Secondarily, Eckhart (wildlife photographer) and Lanjouw (director, Great Ape Program, Arcus Foundation) target a larger audience of laypeople who would never read advanced scientific publications on mountain gorillas, but who are curious about their natural history and status. The superb color photography, unmatched in other books, will certainly appeal to general readers. (Choice review excerpt)
• Gorillas Among Us : A Primate Ethnographer's Book Of Days by Dawn Prince-Hughes (2001)
  • This ethnographer observed a family group of captive zoo gorillas for a year, watching them interact with one another, use tools, eat, and play, and she occasionally caught them watching her. The lead male, Adhama, was by far one of the most interesting of the group, showing many sides to his personality. For example, denied an extra boiled egg one morning, he let loose a "raspberry" to his keeper; he tenderly buried a dead crow; and he used a thorn to remove a splinter from his foot. There were two successful births by Bimani, the oldest female, who proved herself a caring and conscientious mother. In reading this book, it is hard not to empathize with a species often referred to as our closest relative. However scientific her observations, Prince-Hughes clearly developed a nonverbal rapport with the gorilla family, and the book has some sadness but much joy. (Booklist review)

Animal Locomotion

• Restless Creatures : The Story Of Life In Ten Movements by Matt Wilkinson (2016)
  • Who besides Wilkinson looks at a NASCAR rally and sees a malign disruption of Darwinian evolution? Before he laments humankind's modern dependence on motor vehicles, however, Wilkinson sketches the very long history of natural locomotion, beginning with the primitive self-propulsion that carried prokaryotes from dark, deep-sea hydrothermal vents (where many scientists believe life originated) into sunlit regions where photosynthesis evolved. Further unraveling of the biological history of locomotion reveals how the vertebrate backbone emerged out of the natural selection favoring creatures that could swim in primal oceans, how a locomotion-guiding nervous system appeared in jellyfish and other cnidarians, how fish fins transformed into limbs among the tetrapods venturing onto land, and how protohuman primates developed an upright and bipedal gait as they left arboreal life behind, so determining the distinctively human posture. Through all of this lucidly detailed narrative, readers see how evolution endowed life with powers of movement, and how those powers opened dramatic new possibilities for evolutionary metamorphoses. (Booklist review excerpt)
• Eadweard Muybridge : The Human And Animal Locomotion Photographs by Hans-Christian Adam (2014)
  • English photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) is a pioneer in visual studies of human and animal locomotion. In 1872, he famously helped settle a bet for former California governor Leland Stanford by photographing a galloping horse. This book traces the life and work of Muybridge, from his early thinking about anatomy and movement to his latest photographic experiments. Many plates of Muybridge's groundbreaking Animal Locomotion (1887) are reproduced here.
• Prime Mover : A Natural History Of Muscle by Steven Vogel, Steven (2001)
  • Three-hundred-fifty pages on muscle may sound like tough going, but Vogel knows muscle particularly and generally, and he possesses a lucid style brightened by just enough humor. Vogel examines a variety of other animals as well as humans, reporting on the consistency, actions, and uses of their muscles. Revealing that a person has more muscles than bones and that those muscles' anatomical and physiological variety is amazing, he distinguishes between how muscles work and how we work them. Muscles do many things, and many may find reading about them positively gripping. (Booklist review excerpt)