The VIIIth International Congress of the International Prirnatological Society was held from 7 through 11 July 1980 in Florence Italy, under the auspices of the host institution, the Istituto di Antropologia of the University of Florence. More than 300 papers and abstracts were presented either at the main Congress or in 14 pre-Congress symposia the week earlier (so scheduled to avoid conflict with either the main invited lectures or the contnbuted paper sessions). This volume consists of the contributed papers on primate evolu­ tionary biology, primarily functional morphology, evolution, and pale­ ontology. This is a coherent (though broad) and important sub field of primatology. We have thus focused the subject, in agreement with the publishers, to help ensure a successful and useful volume, befitting these very current contributions from the biennal meeting of the International Primatological Society. Furthermore, we have compiled this volume in a fairly unprecedented manner for congress proceedings. In view of space and budget limitations, and the need to guarantee a high-quallty book with appeal for specialists, we subjected all manuscript to a four-stage internal review process and selected only the best 13 of 31. This rejection rate of 58% compares with the more discriminating reviewed scholarly journals. Too often primatological or anthropological proceedings have been heterogeneous, large, unselective volumes that, at least recently, have repeatedly lost money for the publishing house (in sometimes spectacular amounts).