INTRODUCTION

In this part the contributors explore a variety of attributes of the paleobiology of fossil hominoids that may contribute to an understanding of the evolution of great ape intelligence. Our request to these experts, in each topic that is the focus of their contributions, was to focus attention on the way in which a single aspect of paleobiology may inform this issue. This is a twoedged sword. Many authors, most of whom had thought relatively little about the broader question of great ape intelligence (myself included), found new insights from the data they have long been contemplating from other perspectives. On the other hand, since we asked contributors to restrict themselves to a focused topic, many readers may feel that each contributor thinks their area of interest is the one most likely to “explain” great ape cognitive evolution. Nothing could be farther from the truth. All the contributors to this part of the volume recognize that their topic, whether it is environment and ecology, diet, locomotion, size, or life history, is one piece of the puzzle. When authors in this part of the book reach conclusions on the relevance of a specific aspect of fossil ape paleobiology to understanding great ape cognition, it is because the editors pushed them to do it, and all know that each attribute is but a facet of a very complex problem.