Adaptations to environmental change: an evolutionary perspective

Abstract

Investigations of the ways in which mammalian species respond to environmental change are of particular interest since they illuminate questions of evolution, of behavioural adaptation, and of the proximate solutions to problems posed by the environment. The past 20 years of intensive research on primates in their natural environment and in captivity have provided us with an almost bewildering demonstration of variability in morphological adaptation, in social organization and behaviour.