Seasonality in Primates : Studies of Living and Extinct Human and Non-Human Primates

Seasonal variability in food abundance affects what primates eat, how they search for food, how and when they are active, and as a consequence, their body size, social life and reproductive timing. This book examines how seasonality might have also affected human evolution particularly in the transition to the savannah.

The emergence of the genus Homo is widely linked to the colonization of 'new' highly seasonal savannah habitats. However, until recently, our understanding of the possible impact of seasonality on this shift has been limited because we have little general knowledge of how seasonality affects the lives of primates. This book documents the extent of seasonality in food abundance in tropical woody vegetation, and then presents systematic analyses of the impact of seasonality in food supply on the behavioural ecology of non-human primates. Syntheses in this volume then produce broad generalizations concerning the impact of seasonality on behavioural ecology and reproduction in both human and non-human primates, and apply these insights to primate and human evolution. Written for graduate students and researchers in biological anthropology and behavioural ecology, this is an absorbing account of how seasonality may have affected an important episode in our own evolution.