科学家重新思考灵长类体型演化的故事

In many primate species, males have evolved to be bigger than their female counterparts, a disparity typically attributed to competition among socially related males for access to females. But larger body size may be more about dissuading conflict with other males from rival groups, researchers report in Biology Letters. “The traditional explanation is incomplete,” says evolutionary anthropologist Cyril Grueter of the University of Oxford. Many species in the primate order — which includes monkeys, apes and lemurs — have sexual size dimorphism, meaning an average size difference between the sexes. While some primates like gibbons show barely any size disparity, others such as baboons and gorillas can have males that are twice as massive as the females. …