Evolutionary Cell Processes in Primates
Genes, Skin, Energetics, Breathing, and Feeding, Volume II
Evolutionary Cell Biology Series

Many complex traits define the primate condition, including behaviors as fundamental as locomotion and traits as scrutinized as the dentition, and their study reveals dramatic evolutionary change across the primates. Genetic modifications are at the basis of these changes, but transformation of genetic information into phenotypes occurs at the level of the cell, which is the focus of this book. Contributors summarize novel methodologies to analyze the collective behavior of cells in forming tissues and organs influencing physiological functions and anatomical features that enable behaviors. Our goal is to review current knowledge and encourage others to adopt evolutionary cell biology to aid in deciphering the genotype-phenotype map that underlies the diversification of primates, human variation, and human evolution. The contributors to this book utilize advances in genetic analysis and visualization of cells and tissues and merge evolutionary developmental biology with evolutionary cell biology to address questions central to understanding human and primate evolution.

Key Features

• Explores mechanisms underlying trait development, distribution, variation, and evolution, especially with respect to pigmentation, dental formulae, the skeleton, energetics, and temperature-related morphological variation
• 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 environment affects the behavior of cells
• Illustrates the role cell biology plays in pelage growth and pigmentation, facial morphology, melanin production in pigmentation, dental development and tooth loss, and energy expenditure
• Describes novel methodologies and techniques to analyze environment- and temperature-related influences on phenotypes
• Demonstrates how significant changes in life history occur at the level of the cell

Related Titles

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

King, G. R. Primate Behavior and Human Origins (ISBN 978-1-138-85317-1)

Rhys Evans, P. H. The Waterside Ape: An Alternate Account of Human Evolution (ISBN 978-0-367-14548-4)

Volume 2 Evolutionary Cell Processes in Primates: Genes, Skin, Energetics, Breathing, and Feeding

Chapter 1 Molecular and cellular processes of pelage pigmentation and growth in primate evolution

Elizabeth Tapanes, Jason M. Kamilar, and Brenda J. Bradley

Chapter 2 Cell processes and key genes in the evolution of pigmentation variation in humans

Heather Norton

Chapter 3 Cell processes underpinning the evolution of primate dental form and formula

Cassy M. Appelt, Elsa M. Van Ankum, Denver F. Marchiori, and Julia C. Boughner

Chapter 4 Gene regulatory processes in the development and evolution of primate skeletal traits

Genevieve Housman

Chapter 5 Processes that generate modularity in the mammalian skull: implications for primate evolution

Nandini Singh

Chapter 6 Brown adipose tissue, nonshivering thermogenesis, and energy availability

Maureen Devlin

Chapter 7 Interaction between environmental temperature and craniofacial morphology in human evolution: A focus on upper airways

Laura Maréchal and Yann Heuzé

Chapter 8 Evolution and development of the nasal airways in primates: the influence of eye size and position on chondrogenesis and ossification of the nasal skeleton

Timothy D. Smith and Valerie B. DeLeon

Chapter 9 Stem Cells in Primate Evolution

Emily Durham and M. Kathleen Pitirri

M. Kathleen Pitirri, PhD is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Pennsylvania State University. She received her PhD from the University of Toronto in 2019 where she studied primate evolution, focusing specifically on the taxonomic, ontogenetic, and functional basis of mandibular shape variation in living and fossil primates. During her PhD research, Dr. Pitirri developed a novel methodology for studying shape variation of mandibular fragments that are part of the primate fossil record. She found a strong relationship between the shape of the mandibular corpus and molar crypt formation in great apes, suggesting that mandibular shape is linked to an extended period of development in great apes, representing an important evolutionary shift in primates. Upon joining the Richtsmeier Lab, Dr. Pitirri began using mouse models to study the cellular mechanisms involved in transferring information from the genotype to the phenotype. The changes observed in mouse models can be used to interpret the cellular basis for changes observed in skull shape in primates because mechanisms that build the craniofacial skeleton during development also drive variation in disease and evolution. Dr. Pitirri is particularly interested in the evolutionary consequences of change in developmental processes driving the patterning of cellular activities involved in embryogenesis of skull bones, the role of the chondrocranium in skull development, and the genetic pathways regulating the relationship between tooth and bone formation during embryonic development.

Joan Richtsmeier is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Pennsylvania State University. She received her PhD from Northwestern University in 1985 and joined the faculty of the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1986. There, she focused on establishing new quantitative methods for studying change in biological shape through time, especially in prim