Creatures of the Dark

The papers in this volume are representative of those presented at a conference entitled "Creatures of the Dark: The Nocturnal Prosimians," held at Duke University, June 9-12, 1993. The purpose of the conference, attended by more than 100 scientists, was to assemble, for the ftrst time ever, scholars from diverse ftelds with a common interest in the nocturnal prosimian primates. The history of the precursors of this meeting are outlined in the Historical Perspective by Doyle (this volume). Most of the invited papers are presented here in modified form, as are several papers originally presented as posters. Two papers are included that were not presented, due to scheduling conftcts and health considerations. Some papers, delivered from the podium, are not included in this volume. Interactions among conference participants resulted in many revisions to the contributions, as did the comments of reviewers and the editors. Several papers which contained new data or new interpretations of familiar phenomena met with constructive criticism, resulting in modification of the original papers. We thank all of the contributors for their patience and cooperation, and commend the numerous reviewers who generously donated their time and expertise. We greatly appreciate funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Wenner­ Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Duke University Center for International Studies, the Duke University Primate Center, and Drs. Charles Putman of Duke University and Malcolm Gillis, currently of Rice Universtiy.