Lemur behaviour informs the evolution of social monogamy
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1Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Unit, German Primate Centre, Göttingen, Germany; Department Sociobiology/Anthropology, University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Abstract:
Recent comparative analyses reached contradictory conclusions about the evolutionary origins of social monogamy in primates and other mammals, but they ignored variation in social bond quality between pair-partners. Recent field studies of Malagasy primates (lemurs) with variable intersexual bonds indicate independent evolutionary transitions to pair-living from solitary and group-living ancestors, respectively, as well as four cumulative steps in evolutionary transitions from a solitary life style to pair-living that resolve some contradictory results of previous studies.
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