Seasonality in Primates: Studies of Living and Extinct Human and Non-Human Primates (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology, Series Number 44)

The emergence of the genus Homo is widely linked to the colonization of "new" highly seasonal savannah habitats. However, until now, 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. It then presents a systematic analysis of seasonality's impact in food supply on the behavioral ecology of non-human primates and ultimately applies its conclusions to primate and human evolution.

All primates have to cope with seasonal variation in food supply. Written for graduate students and researchers in biological anthropology and behavioural ecology, this book explores how seasonality affects what primates eat, where they search for food, and how and when they are active, as well as how this affects body size, social life, reproductive timing and the composition of primate communities. For the first time, patterns can be distinguished that are then applied to show whether major transitions during human evolution can be ascribed to seasonality.