Baboon perspectives on the ecology and behavior of early human ancestors

Abstract

For more than 70 y researchers have looked to baboons (monkeys of the genus Papio ) as a source of hypotheses about the ecology and behavior of early hominins (early human ancestors and their close relatives). This approach has undergone a resurgence in the last decade as a result of rapidly increasing knowledge from experimental and field studies of baboons and from archeological and paleontological studies of hominins. The result is a rich array of analogies, scenarios, and other stimuli to thought about the ecology and behavior of early hominins. The main intent here is to illustrate baboon perspectives on early hominins, with emphasis on recent developments. This begins with a discussion of baboons and hominins as we know them currently and explains the reasons for drawing comparisons between them. These include occupation of diverse environments, combination of arboreal and terrestrial capabilities, relatively large body size, and sexual dimorphism. The remainder of the paper illustrates the main points with a small number of examples drawn from diverse areas of interest: diet (grasses and fish), danger (leopards and crocodiles), social organization (troops and multilevel societies), social relationships (male–male, male–female, female–female), communication (possible foundations of language), cognition (use of social information, comparison of self to others), and bipedalism (a speculative developmental hypothesis about the neurological basis). The conclusion is optimistic about the future of baboon perspectives on early hominins.

Flexible reproductive seasonality in Africa-dwelling papionins is associated with low environmental productivity and high climatic unpredictability

“…Baboons and relatives represent an interesting model for understanding the evolution of behavioural and reproductive plasticity of early humans (J. Fischer et al, 2019; King, 2022). Although most great apes are nonseasonal breeders (Brockman & van Schaik, 2005b; Campos et al, 2017), suggesting that their common ancestor also bred year-round, humans are distinct from other apes by exhibiting much faster reproductive paces (which are similar to most Africa-dwelling papionins: Swedell, 2011), and by living in a wider variety of environments, rather than being restricted to tropical forests (Wells & Stock, 2007).…”

“…Baboons and relatives represent an interesting model for understanding the evolution of behavioural and reproductive plasticity of early humans (J. Fischer et al, 2019;King, 2022).…”

“…Altmann & Alberts, 2005; Swedell, 2011). Investigating the environmental determinants of their reproductive seasonality may thus shed new light on the evolution and maintenance of non-seasonal breeding in early hominins (King, 2022).…”

Global and local ancestry estimation in a captive baboon colony

“…Similar to hominins, baboons evolved in savannah habitats in Africa [ 5 , 6 ], and isotope studies have shown that baboons and early hominins, such as Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus , exploited similar dietary resources [ 7 ]. A recent review article emphasized the relevance of baboons for human evolutionary studies, as baboons and early hominids are thought to share similarities in environmental flexibility, body size, subsistence strategies, predator avoidance, and the size and structure of their societies [ 8 ].…”