sample page spread, Primates of the World

sample page spread, Primates of the World

This goes with the post just previous. In the US edition it’s out from Princeton U Press, 2013, created by Jean-Jacques Petter and Francois Desbordes, and translated by Robert Martin. Art work is exquisite. Taxonomy seems okay (I’m no expert) — probably more splitty than lumpy, as the trends seem to be. Range maps a bit small at times: it’s a nice, uniform visual design but not as useful as it could be. They should look at bird guides: it’s okay to zoom in on just a PART of South America. We really don’t need Patagonia shown each and every plate. Dust jacket claims 72 color plates and nearly 300 species. I didn’t count but take their word for it. Humans are not shown but everything else I could think to check looked good. My personal list is only around 50 primates but the plates looked good compared to my memory, and they certainly are a pleasure to spend time with. Front matter (ecology, lineage) is adequate but not coffee-table-book thick. I had never seen the French one so this was a bit of a surprise for me.

— Charles Hood, Palmdale, California

1 Comment

  • Richard Webb

    Charles, thanks for posting this. Nice book with fabulous plates, if only the plates in the primate volume of the handbook were consistently as good. The only downside is the taxonomy with under 300 species it’s over 75 species down on Lawson & Duff without allowing for subsequent discoveries. Richard

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