Maternal-Fetal Weight Relationships in Primates

Leutenegger, Walter

doi:10.1159/000155580

Cited by 167 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(14 reference statements)

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“…In the callitrichines, infants are usually born as twins and their combined weight might be as much as 15-20% of the mother's body mass (Garber 1994 ;Goldizen 1990 ;Leutenegger 1973 ) . All group members participate in helping, including offspring from previous litters (Goldizen 1987b ;Huck et al 2004 ;Porter and Garber 2009 ;Savage et al 1996 ;Yamamoto et al 2009 ) .…”

Section: Platyrrhinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Dads Help: Male Behavioral Care During Primate Infant Development

Huck

Fernández-Duque

2012

Building Babies

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In contrast to birds, male mammals rarely help to raise the offspring. Of all mammals, only among rodents, carnivores, and primates, males are sometimes intensively engaged in providing infant care (Kleiman and Malcolm 1981). Male caretaking of infants has long been recognized in nonhuman primates (Itani 1959). Given that infant care behavior can have a positive effect on the infant’s development, growth, well-being, or survival, why are male mammals not more frequently involved in “building babies”? We begin the chapter defining a few relevant terms and introducing the theory and hypotheses that have historically addressed the evolution of paternal care. We then review empirical findings on male care among primate taxa, before focusing, in the final section, on our own work on paternal care in South American owl monkeys (Aotus spp.). We conclude the chapter with some suggestions for future studies

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Section: Platyrrhinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Dads Help: Male Behavioral Care During Primate Infant Development

Huck

Fernández-Duque

2012

Building Babies

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“…The second example of the need to recognize distinct grades in reproductive biology is provided by the scaling of neonatal body mass in primates. It has been known for some time that in strepsirrhine primates (lemurs and lorises) neonates are markedly smaller relative to adult body mass than in haplorhine primates (tarsiers, monkeys, apes and humans) (Leutenegger, 1973;Martin, 1990). If a single best-fit line is determined for the scaling of neonatal body mass in primates (Fig.·8), the commonly used parametric techniques all yield an exponent value (α) close to 0.90 (least-squares regression: 0.874; major axis: 0.906; reduced major axis: 0.909).…”

Section: Examples From Mammalian Reproductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Problems of allometric scaling analysis: examples from mammalian reproductive biology

Martín

Genoud

Hemelrijk

2005

Journal of Experimental Biology

130

113

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“…; EC Kirk, unpublished data; NW: Glander et al 1991; NBr: Leutenegger 1970Leutenegger , 1973Schultz 1941 …”

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confidence: 97%

Life history costs and benefits of encephalization: a comparative test using data from long-term studies of primates in the wild

Barrickman

Bastian

Isler

et al. 2008

Journal of Human Evolution

181

168

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The correlation between brain size and life history has been investigated in many previous studies, and several viable explanations have been proposed. However, the results of these studies are often at odds, causing uncertainties about whether these two character complexes underwent correlated evolution. These disparities could arise from the mixture of wild and captive values in the datasets, potentially obscuring real relationships and from differences in the methods of controlling for phylogenetic nonindependence of species values. This paper seeks to resolve these difficulties by (1) proposing an overarching hypothesis that encompasses many of the previously proposed hypotheses; (2) testing the predictions of this hypothesis using rigorously compiled data and utilizing multiple methods of analysis. Our hypothesis is that the adaptive benefit of increased encephalization is an increase in reproductive lifespan or efficiency, which must be sufficient to outweigh the costs due to growing and maturing the larger brain. These costs and benefits are directly reflected in the length of life history stages. We tested this hypothesis on a wide range of primate species. Our results demonstrate that encephalization is significantly correlated with prolongation of all stages of developmental life history except the lactational period, and is significantly correlated with an extension of the reproductive lifespan. These results support the contention that the link between brain size and life history is caused by a balance between the costs of growing a brain and the survival benefits the brain provides, and specifically the slowing of life history during human evolution is caused by increased encephalization. 1Life history costs and benefits of encephalization: a comparative test using data from long-term studies of primates in the wild Nancy L. Barrickman AbstractThe correlation between brain size and life history has been investigated in many previous studies, and several viable explanations have been proposed. However, the results of these studies are often at odds, causing uncertainties about whether these two character complexes underwent correlated evolution. These disparities could arise from the mixture of wild and captive values in the datasets, potentially obscuring real relationships and from differences in the methods of controlling for phylogenetic nonindependence of species values. This paper seeks to resolve these difficulties by (1) proposing an overarching hypothesis that encompasses many of the previously proposed hypotheses; (2) testing the predictions of this hypothesis using rigorously compiled data and utilizing multiple methods of analysis. Our hypothesis is that the adaptive benefit of increased encephalization is an increase in reproductive lifespan or efficiency, which must be sufficient to outweigh the costs due to growing and maturing the larger brain. These costs and benefits are directly reflected in the length of life history stages. We tested this hypothesis on a wide range of pr...

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Maternal-Fetal Weight Relationships in Primates

Cited by 167 publications

References 10 publications

When Dads Help: Male Behavioral Care During Primate Infant Development

When Dads Help: Male Behavioral Care During Primate Infant Development

Problems of allometric scaling analysis: examples from mammalian reproductive biology

Life history costs and benefits of encephalization: a comparative test using data from long-term studies of primates in the wild

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