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      Infanticide risk and the evolution of male-female association in primates

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      Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
      The Royal Society

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          Abstract

          Year-round association between adult males and females is common in primates, even though internal gestation and lactation predispose males to mate-desertion in the majority of mammals. Because there is little a priori support for alternative explanations, we hypothesized that permanent male-female association in primates serves to reduce the risk of infanticide by strange males whenever females and infants are closely associated. For a phylogenetic test of this hypothesis, we reconstructed the evolution of male-female and female-infant association among primates. The results of Maddison's concentrated changes test confirmed the prediction that mother-infant association, as opposed to infant parking, and female-male association did not evolve independently. Changes in litter size and activity, in contrast, were not significantly associated with evolutionary changes in male-female association. Thus, we demonstrate a fundamental link between primate life history and social behaviour, explain the most basic type of variation in primate social organization, and propose an additional determinant of social organization that may also operate in other mammals.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
          Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
          The Royal Society
          0962-8452
          1471-2954
          November 22 1997
          November 22 1997
          : 264
          : 1388
          : 1687-1694
          Article
          10.1098/rspb.1997.0234
          1688726
          9404030
          cb53850b-d212-4e08-9634-7fdd87f5922f
          © 1997
          History

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