Seasonality in Primates

by Brockman, Diane K.; van Schaik, Carel P.

• ISBN13: 9781107406469
• ISBN10: 1107406463
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-16
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

The emergence of the genus Homo is widely linked to the colonization of 'new' highly seasonal savannah habitats. However, until recently, our understanding of the possible impact of seasonality on this shift has been limited because we have little general knowledge of how seasonality affects the lives of primates. This 2005 book documents the extent of seasonality in food abundance in tropical woody vegetation, and then presents systematic analyses of the impact of seasonality in food supply on the behavioural ecology of non-human primates. Syntheses in this volume then produce broad generalizations concerning the impact of seasonality on behavioural ecology and reproduction in both human and non-human primates, and apply these insights to primate and human evolution. Written for graduate students and researchers in biological anthropology and behavioural ecology, this is an absorbing account of how seasonality may have affected an important episode in our own evolution.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Seasonality in primate ecology, reproduction, and life history: an overview

Seasonal Habitats

Tropical climates and phenology: a primate perspective

Seasonality and Behavioural Ecology

The influence of seasonality on primate diet and ranging

Seasonality in predation risk: varying activity periods in lemurs and other primates

Physiological adaptations to seasonality in nocturnal primates

Seasonality and long-term change in a savannah environment

Day length seasonality and the thermal environment

Seasonality in hunting by nonhuman primates

Human hunting seasonality

Seasonality, Reproduction, and Social Organisation

Seasonality and reproductive function

Seasonality of primate births in relation to climate

Energetic responses to food availability in the great apes: implications for hominin evolution

Human birth seasonality

Seasonality, social organisation, and sexual dimorphism in primates

Seasonality and Community Ecology

Seasonality and primate communities

Primate diversity and environmental seasonality in historical perspective

Seasonality and Human Evolution

Tropical and temperate seasonal influences on human evolution

Orbital controls on seasonality

What do studies of primate seasonality tell us about human evolution?

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