KeErah Hutchings

Evolutionary Theory Paper: Primate Behaviors

Introduction
Our group decided to examine the behaviors of primates and how they
play a role in our in our human evolution. In this paper I will discuss the
sexual behaviors, social behaviors, reproductive strategies, cooperation, and
material culture.
Body
By looking at earlier primate behaviors we can see how humans
became what we are today. Natural selection favors primates that enhance
survival and reproduction. Male and female primates have different
reproductive roles. Female primates use more energy to make and take care
of their offspring. Males on the other hand use their energy to compete
aggressively among themselves for sexual access to females. This
competition creates sexual dimorphism, primates body size and canine size
gets larger in areas where males are constantly competing. With humans
there are some completion between males like going to the gym and
competing in sports to try and get female attention. The males who get the
females are usually the biggest and most aggressive. According to an article
in Journal of Evolutionary Biology they explain that another reason for growth
is due to the changing in seasons they state, a prolonged growth period is
thought to allow for greater sexual bimaturism, which may reduce metabolic
risks of accelerated growth rates for malesshort growing seasons may
reduce the opportunity for male ontogeny to respond to pressures of sexual
selection (pg. 2317).
Nonhuman primates as well as humans have different social structures
and residence patterns. There are six main types of primate residence
patterns such as one-male to multiple females, one female to multi-males,

multi-males and multi-females, all males, one-male to one-female, and

solidary. Humans tend to have a dominant one male and one female
relationship, but like other primates there are other ways that humans have
relationships. Depending on the resident pattern changes
Male and female nonhuman primates reproductive strategies are
different. Because they use their energy in different ways their strategies
and interests are different. Males focus on physical competition in large
bodies, large canines and large testes. Another example of male
reproductive strategy is infanticide where they kill nursing infants by another
alpha male who was driven out and replaced, usually in a one male to multifemale resident pattern to get rid of the competition for their offspring.
Females compete with each other for resources that will allow them to care
for their young. Female primates use sexual signals to advertise sexual
willingness to mate. They have sexual swellings, their fur color changes, and
their odor changes to entice the other males to fight over them. For humans
we are not much different; single and even married women dress up, wear
perfume and act differently around single men.
Primates are highly cooperative social animals even though completion
is important to social behavior. Nonhuman primates use grooming like
stroking the hair or removing bugs and other objects from other primates it is
a way to form bonds or alliances as well as calming an individual. Primates
also practice fairness. They will give up something that benefits them in
order to gain benefits in the long run. They also protect their territories and
protect their relatives against other primates. There is also a strong kinship
factor in groups, according to the article that Chapais, B, and Berman, C. M.
wrote; They state, The potential for kinship to exert an influence on social
behavior and social structure is clearly constrained by the extent to which
kin-related individuals coexist in the same group(pg. 133). Kinship or kin
selection is the evolutionary benefits of an altruistic behavior to the kin
group outweigh the cost to the individual.

Humans depend on technology. They use tools to build other things to

make the food for them and Primates mostly rely on getting food by using
their bodies but have been seen using tools in certain areas. When they do
use tools it is simple like using a twig to gather termites, using rocks to
smash things, or on rare occasions throwing stones to show dominance. Tool
use is a learned behavior that is passed down and is usually localized to
certain areas. Using tools can create higher competition according to a study
Verderane, M. M. did on social relationships among female primates. The
study showed that for this group of capuchins tool use increased withingroup contest competition and apparently contributed to the linearity of the
dominance hierarchies established among females. Not only did it create
more competition, it was a competition between females. Showing that
males are not the only one who hunt for food. By examining how primates
use these tools and compete to get food we can get closer to how primitive
humans might have made tools to hunt.
Conclusion
To sum up by looking at nonhuman primate behaviors, such as sexual
behaviors, residence patterns, reproductive strategy, cooperation, and
material culture, you can see similarities and differences to humans and how
we got to where we are.

Bibliography
Dunham, A. E., Maitner, B. S., Razafindratsima, O. H., Simmons, M. C., & Roy,
C. L. (2013). Body size and sexual size dimorphism in primates:
influence of climate and net primary productivity. Journal of
Evolutionary Biology, 26(11), 2312-2320. doi:10.1111/jeb.12239

Chapais, B., & Berman, C. M. (2004). Kinship and Behavior in Primates.

Oxford: Oxford University Press. 133.
Verderane, M. M. (2013). Socioecology of wild bearded capuchin monkeys
(,Sapajus libidinosus): an analysis of social relationships among female
primates that use tools in feeding. Behavior, 150(6), 659-689.
In class notes Worksheet 7: Primate Behavior, presented by Marisa Maughan.