Infant Development and Maternal Care in Wild Verreaux’s Sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi)

Malalaharivony, Hasina S.; Kappeler, Peter M.; Fichtel, Claudia

doi:10.1007/s10764-021-00255-x

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 103 publications

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“…This fact might be due to morphological constraints because lemurs have less well diversified facial muscles involved in coordination of facial expression than anthropoid primates [105,106]. Facial expressions in lemurs mainly consist of mouth-displays, such as the open-mouth display that is produced during play in ring-tailed lemurs, Coquerel's and Verreaux's sifakas ( Propithecus coquereli , P. verreauxi ; figure 1 f ) [107,108]. Yawning is associated with a sleep–wake cycle in ring-tailed lemurs and Verreaux's sifakas, but also with anxiety, for example, after predatory attacks [109] or undecided behaviour during agonistic interactions in ring-tailed lemurs [74].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coevolution of social and communicative complexity in lemurs

Fichtel

Kappeler

2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The endemic lemurs of Madagascar (Lemuriformes: Primates) exhibit great social and communicative diversity. Given their independent evolutionary history, lemurs provide an excellent opportunity to identify fundamental principles in the coevolution of social and communicative traits. We conducted comparative phylogenetic analyses to examine patterns of interspecific variation among measures of social complexity and repertoire sizes in the vocal, olfactory and visual modality, while controlling for environmental factors such as habitat and number of sympatric species. We also examined potential trade-offs in signal evolution as well as coevolution between body mass or brain size and communicative complexity. Repertoire sizes in the vocal, olfactory and visual modality correlated positively with group size, but not with environmental factors. Evolutionary changes in social complexity presumably antedated corresponding changes in communicative complexity. There was no trade-off in the evolution of signals in different modalities and neither body mass nor brain size correlated with any repertoire size. Hence, communicative complexity coevolved with social complexity across different modalities, possibly to service social relationships flexibly and effectively in pair- and group-living species. Our analyses shed light on the requirements and adaptive possibilities in the coevolution of core elements of social organization and social structure in a basal primate lineage. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cognition, communication and social bonds in primates’.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coevolution of social and communicative complexity in lemurs

Fichtel

Kappeler

2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Independent fitness consequences of group size variation in Verreaux’s sifakas

Kappeler,

Fichtel

2024

Commun Biol

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The costs and benefits of group living are also reflected in intraspecific variation in group size. Yet, little is known about general patterns of fitness consequences of this variation. We use demographic records collected over 25 years to determine how survival and reproductive success vary with group size in a Malagasy primate. We show that female reproductive rates of Verreaux’s sifakas (Propithecus verreauxi) are not affected by total group size, but that they are supressed by the number of co-resident females, whereas mortality rates are significantly higher in larger groups. Neither annual rainfall nor the adult sex ratio have significant effects on birth and death rates. Hence, these sifakas enjoy the greatest net fitness benefits at small, and not the predicted intermediate group sizes. Thus, independent fitness proxies can vary independently as a function of group size as well as other factors, leading to deviations from optimal intermediate group sizes.

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Infant Development and Maternal Care in Wild Verreaux’s Sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi)

Cited by 2 publications

References 103 publications

Coevolution of social and communicative complexity in lemurs

Coevolution of social and communicative complexity in lemurs

Independent fitness consequences of group size variation in Verreaux’s sifakas

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