Chapter 18
THE ARCHIMEDES OF THE MACAQUES
1. Translated by John Dryden and revised by Arthur Hugh Clough (New York: The Modern Library, 1932), pp. 378, 379.2. Work of Wendy Bailey and Morris Goodman; private communication from Morris Goodman, 1992. See also ref. 12.3. Michael M. Miyamoto and Morris Goodman, “DNA Systematics and Evolution of Primates,” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 21 (1990), pp. 197–220.4. Marc Godinot and Mohamed Mahboubi, “Earliest Known Simian Primate Found in Algeria,” Nature 357 (1992), pp. 324–326.5. Leonard Krishtalka, Richard K. Stucky, and K. Christopher Beard, “The Earliest Fossil Evidence for Sexual Dimorphism in Primates,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 87 (13) (July 1990), pp. 5223–5226.6. Almost 9% of the volume of the brain of insectivores (“insect-eaters,” small mammals that may resemble the ancestors of primates) is concerned with the analysis of odors. For prosimians, the number is down to 1.8%; for monkeys, around o. 15%; and for great apes, 0.07%. The fraction for humans is only 0.01%: Only one part in ten thousand of the volume of our brain is devoted to the understanding of smell. (H. Stephan, R. Bauchot, and O. J. Andy, “Data on Size of the Brain and of Various Brain Parts in Insectivores and Primates,” in
The Primate Brain, C. Noback and W. Montagna, editors [New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1970], pp. 289–297.) For insectivores, smell is a major part of what the brain does. For humans, it is an almost insignificant part of our perception of the world—as everyday experience confirms. Humans require 10 million times more butyric acid in the air than dogs do in order to smell it reliably. For acetic acid the factor is 200 million; for caproic acid, 100 million; and for ethyl mercaptan, which is not involved in sexual signaling, two thousand times. (R. H. Wright, The Sense of Smell [London: George Allen & Unwin, 1964]; D. Michael Stoddart, The Scented Ape: The Biology and Culture of Human Odour [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990], Table 9.1, p. 235.)7. J. Terborgh, “The Social Systems of the New World Primates: An Adaptationist View,” in J. G. Else and P. C. Lee, eds., Primate Ecology and Conservation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 199–211.8. H. Sigg, “Differentiation of Female Positions in Hamadryas One-Male-Units,” Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 53 (1980), pp. 265–302.9. Connie M. Anderson, “Female Age: Male Preference and Reproductive Success in Primates,” International Journal of Primatology 7 (1986), pp. 305–326.10. Dorothy L. Cheney and Richard W. Wrangham, “Predation,” Chapter 19 in Barbara B. Smuts, Dorothy L. Cheney, Robert M. Seyfarth, Richard W. Wrangham, and Thomas T. Struhsaker, editors,