The hominoids--gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees, collectively known generically as 'apes', have been held up as a mirror for humanity since antiquity. Throughout western history, humans have sought to clarify their own identities, morphological, behavioral, and since Darwin , genealogical, by looking toward the apes.

Given their intelligence and highly complex social systems, the apes are fascinating animals in their own rights. Further, it is through the comparative analysis of these taxa that we gain key insights into the structural-functional correlates of our own form. In association with research from socioecological studies, these are the data that are used to build models for early hominin behavior. Thus, analysis of the hominoids is an essential and indeed a critical aspect of biological anthropology as well as being integral to inquiry in the fields of primatology, zoology and evolutionary biology.

Currently, students are afforded an introduction to the ape taxa in courses such as V1010 and V1011 but these are survey courses and it is necessarily a cursory presentation. Higher level seminars focus either broadly on topics across the primate spectrum (largely focusing on the more widely distributed monkey taxa) or narrowly on human evolution. This leaves a significant lacuna in the area of hominoid studies. This course answers that need. Through a combination of lecture, discussion, films (when feasible, observation at the observation at the Congo-Gorilla Forest exhibit at the Bronx Zoo), and hands-on analysis of the extant morphological material and fossil casts, students will explore the variability within and among these forms.