Scott Raymond
Scott Raymond is a Ruby on Rails developer living in Kansas City. His work has
been highlighted on the Rails web site and the Wall Street Journal Online. Besides
participating in the framework's development, he has led international Rails training
sessions and was a presenter at RailsConf 2006.
The animal on the cover of Ajax on Rails is a Peruvian spider monkey (Ateles
chamek), also known as a black-faced spider monkey. Native to the tropical forests
of Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, this spider monkey weighs about 15 pounds (6.8 kg) and
lives 30 to 40 years. The black-faced spider monkey's body, arms, and legs each
measure about 20 inches, but its prehensile tail can be as long as 30 inches. The
prehensile tail acts as an extra hand and can support the weight of the monkey when
it needs to pick fruit with two hands or swing from tree to tree. The tail has a section
of fleshy pads that it uses for grasping and feeling, which is crucial since spider
monkeys are one of the only primates that do not have opposable thumbs; biologists
believe the thumb impeded the spider monkey's ability to swing from branch to
branch and was evolutionarily eliminated. The spider monkey's diet is 80 percent
fruit, but depending on the season it also eats insects, leaves, and seeds. Even though
the black-faced spider monkey is fairly common, deforestation has shrunk its livable
habitat, and it is often a target for hunters as well as pet traders.