The evolution of information donation: a targeted comparison between marmosets and squirrel monkeys

Abstract

Proactive information donation is crucial for human cumulative cultural evolution. Evidence for proactive information donation in nonhuman animals is limited to a few examples, and its evolutionary origin remains debated. Here, we examine the role of cooperative breeding for the evolution of proactive information donation by comparing cooperatively breeding common marmosets and an independently breeding sister taxon, the squirrel monkeys, in a series of food sharing experiments. Food sharing was virtually absent in squirrel monkeys but highly prevalent in marmosets. Furthermore, experienced adult marmosets shared more food with immatures when food was more difficult than easy-to-access. This increase was mainly driven by the experienced adults, who proactively initiated sharing more often in the difficult condition, consistent with proactive information donation. These notable species differences have significant implications for the evolution of information donation in cooperatively breeding humans and its absence in other great apes who all breed independently.

The ontogeny of play in a highly cooperative monkey, the common marmoset

“…All contribute to rearing the infants. Adult breeders and helpers appear to show a genuine concern about the immatures' well-being (Brügger et al, 2018(Brügger et al, , 2023 and proactively share food and information (Sehner et al, 2023). Males are important caretakers for the immatures, in contrast to most of the other primate species (Burkart et al, 2007).…”

What semantic dementia tells us about the ability to infer others' communicative intentions

“…Food-offering calls in tamarins are given for young immatures to offer food to them, but to older immatures only to indicate the location where the immatures can learn to extract food, thus engaging in teaching-like behavior (Rapaport, 2011;Troisi, Hoppitt, Ruiz-Miranda, & Laland, 2018). In fact, several marmoset and tamarin species show remarkable sensitivity to the skill level of immatures when deciding whether to advertise the presence of food and share it with them (Dell 'Mour, Range, & Huber, 2009;Humle & Snowdon, 2008;Moura, Nunes, & Langguth, 2010;Sehner, van Schaik, & Burkart, 2022;Snowdon & Roskos, 2017). Critically, such teaching-like scaffolding was also reported during the vocal development of immatures (Chow, Mitchell, & Miller, 2015;Takahashi et al, 2015Takahashi et al, , 2017.…”

Primates unleashed

“…Food-offering calls in tamarins are given for young immatures to offer food to them, but to older immatures only to indicate the location where the immatures can learn to extract food, thus engaging in teaching-like behavior (Rapaport, 2011;Troisi, Hoppitt, Ruiz-Miranda, & Laland, 2018). In fact, several marmoset and tamarin species show remarkable sensitivity to the skill level of immatures when deciding whether to advertise the presence of food and share it with them (Dell 'Mour, Range, & Huber, 2009;Humle & Snowdon, 2008;Moura, Nunes, & Langguth, 2010;Sehner, van Schaik, & Burkart, 2022;Snowdon & Roskos, 2017). Critically, such teaching-like scaffolding was also reported during the vocal development of immatures (Chow, Mitchell, & Miller, 2015;Takahashi et al, 2015Takahashi et al, , 2017.…”