Primatology

Primatology is a branch of zoology which deals with the study of primates.  It is a different field and primatologists could be found in fields of anthropology, psychology biology and many others. The development of primatology in the centuries that followed is a modern outgrowth of the develop­ment of science as a whole. At the end of the Middle Ages, in the sixteenth century, Nicolaus Copernicus and Andreas Vesalius published, within weeks of each other, two books introducing a method of observation relying upon induction, a method which builds upon close observation to propose general principals; that is, a scientific method (Ashley-Montagu, 1943). In the same period, Konrad Gesner published Hktoriae Anhiialium, five volumes considered to be the first illustrated books on zoology, including descriptions of several kinds of monkeys and apes. Gesner is generally thought of as the founder of the modern science of zoology. His text was followed, in the same year, by Nicholas Tulp's description of the name "orangutan," a Malayan term meaning "man of the woods" or in Latin, Homo sylveilris. This term continued to be used popularly into the middle of the nineteenth century for all great apes. It was also the name used by Tyson for the non-human primate he studied in 1699.

Edward Tyson (1650-1708) is credited with the founding of the modern study of primarology. Although not an evolutionist in the sense in which the term is used today, Tyson believed in a "chain of creation" relating various groups of animals, a gradual scheme rather than an evolutionary one. Through his distinguished studies, Tyson is considered not only the founder of primatology but of comparative anatomy as well (Swindler, 1998).

Louis Pasteur, in the nineteenth century continued the dynamic development of science and animal research in his efforts to identify and eradicate disease. Through direct intervenrion with animals, he originated, and was the first to use, vaccines. A father of animal research, he perfected a technique for vaccinating sheep against anthrax, protected fowl from chicken cholera and, most famously, in 1885 created a successful inoculation against rabies. His work was contemporary with Darwin's Theory of revolution, establishment by Matthias Schleicn of the cell theory, and Karl Ernst von Bacr's recognition of the mammalian egg and the formation of germ layers: the foundation for modern embryology.

Questionnaire:

• What is primatology? Explain.