Chapter 8: Primate Life Histories and the Evolution of Intelligence

Content locked

The catalog is public. Reading this content requires approved access.

Chapter objectives

Big Brains and Long Lives

Selection for larger brains drives selection for longer lives

Life History Theory

Aging and death result from trade-offs between reproduction at different ages and survival

The trade-off is biased against traits that prolong life at the expense of early survival or reproduction

Trade-offs bundle life history traits into correlated constellations

The current-vs-future trade-off depends on ecological survival rates

Selection shifts life history traits in response to environmental change

Primates fall toward the slow/long end of the continuum

Selective Pressures Favoring Large Brains in Monkeys and Apes

Comparative analyses support both hypotheses

What Do Monkeys Know about One Another?

Monkeys and apes track others’ kinship relationships

Monkeys probably understand others’ rank relationships

Coalitions draw on sophisticated cognition

What do monkeys and apes know about others’ minds?

The Value of Studying Primate Behavior

Key terms

Study questions