Desmond Morris, whose book The Naked Aped inspired and scandalised, dies aged 98

Zoologist and author Desmond Morris dies aged 98Just nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleSam WoodhouseBBCHis book The Naked Ape was a controversial sensation when it was released in 1967Desmond Morris, the zoologist, author, artist and television presenter, has died aged 98.Morris was best known for his book, The Naked Ape, which was published in 1967. It framed modern humans as still being fundamentally ape-like despite our technological advances and evolution. He was also a surrealist painter and exhibited his work around the world alongside artists such as Joan Miró.Morris's son Jason confirmed his death on 20 April, calling his father "a great man and an even better father and grandfather", who lived "a lifetime of exploration, curiosity and creativity".Getty ImagesMorris in his office at London Zoo, where he served as the curator of mammals"Sexual intercourse began," wrote Philip Larkin, "in 1963... between the end of the [Lady] Chatterley['s Lover] ban and the Beatles' first LP."In the years that followed the sexual revolution, a slew of books - in their different ways - found eager readers among the freshly liberated.There was Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch, Alex Comfort's The Joy of Sex and - in the Summer of Love of 1967 itself - Desmond Morris' The Naked Ape.He wrote it in four frenetic weeks. It explained our habits and rituals, with the naughtiness of "naked" and the Darwinian thrill of "ape".It was mankind seen through the eyes of a zoologist - not an anthropologist. It framed our behaviour in the context of evolution - not culture.As a thesis, it was hotly contested, but it was wildly popular and had lasting influence.It was a bible of human actions for the Age of Aquarius, and plumbed for insight into the practice of modern sex.Getty ImagesDesmond Morris at London Zoo teaching children about animal behaviour, with the help of an orangutan and a chimpanzeeDe...