Cover to the first edition of The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris. Desmond Morris, the English zoologist whose 1967 bestseller The Naked Ape argued that modern humans are basically fancy primates still running on Stone Age software, died Sunday near Dublin at 98 , according to the New York Times. Twenty million copies and 23 translations later, the book is still in print — despite being pulled from shelves in a Long Island school district and denounced by professionals in roughly every relevant academic field. The central claim — that ancient primate genes shape human behavior in ways civilization can't override — outraged academics across several disciplines. Morris, who called the book "deliberately insulting," was unbothered. The profits funded a move to Malta, a villa with 27 rooms, a pair of Rolls-Royces, and a yacht. The book had been written in a month, under financial pressure, which may explain its breezy confidence.…