Since 1976, when I published the Dentition of Nonhuman Primates, much has happened in the field of dental anthropology, creating a tremendous array of new information available to student and field researcher alike. This volume combines basic material available to me then with knowledge gleaned from more recent research in an attempt to gather the most useful and comprehensive data in one consolidated text.

The organization of the book is taxonomic, beginning with the prosimians and ending with the great apes. There is no temporal aspect to the data presented. It is solely heuristic, not evolutionary, nor does the taxonomic organization of the book intend to suggest in any way that the dentition of one group gave rise to that of another group.

Chapter 1 introduces the primates studied, organized in the Linnean system, i.e. a hierarchy of levels that group organisms into larger and larger units (see Table 1.1). This chapter continues with a discussion of dental anatomy and terminology as well as a section reporting recent information in the field of dental genetics. Several of the taxa presented have genera and species names, or even hierarchical positions, different from those that they did several years ago. I have attempted to follow the latest information regarding their rank and scientific names.