Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity
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Authors
Kulik, Lars
Haas, Fabian
Barratt, Christopher D.
Abwe, Ekwoge E.
Angedakin, Samuel
Aubert, Floris
Ayimisin, Emmanuel Ayuk
Bailey, Emma
Bessone, Mattia
Brazzola, Gregory
Buh, Valentine Ebua
Chancellor, Rebecca
Cohen, Heather
Coupland, Charlotte
Curran, Bryan
Danquah, Emmanuel
Deschner, Tobias
Dowd, Dervla
Eno-Nku, Manasseh
Michael Fay, J.
Granjon, Anne-Céline
Head, Josephine
Hedwig, Daniela
Hermans, Veerle
Junker, Jessica
Kambi, Mohamed
Kienast, Ivonne
Kujirakwinja, Deo
Langergraber, Kevin E.
Lapuente, Juan
Larson, Bradley
Leinert, Vera
Marrocoli, Sergio
Meier, Amelia C.
Morgan, Bethan
Morgan, David
Normand, Emmanuelle
Ormsby, Lucy Jayne
Piel, Alex
Preece, Jodie
Robbins, Martha M.
Rundus, Aaron
Sommer, Volker
Tennie, Claudio
Vergnes, Virginie
Welsh, Adam
Willie, Jacob
Zuberbühler, Klaus
Publication Date
2020-09-15Journal Title
Nature Communications
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK
Volume
11
Issue
1
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Kalan, A. K., Kulik, L., Arandjelovic, M., Boesch, C., Haas, F., Dieguez, P., Barratt, C. D., et al. (2020). Environmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity. Nature Communications, 11 (1) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18176-3
Description
Funder: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Max Planck Society); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100004189
Funder: Heinz L. Krekeler Foundation
Abstract
Abstract: Large brains and behavioural innovation are positively correlated, species-specific traits, associated with the behavioural flexibility animals need for adapting to seasonal and unpredictable habitats. Similar ecological challenges would have been important drivers throughout human evolution. However, studies examining the influence of environmental variability on within-species behavioural diversity are lacking despite the critical assumption that population diversification precedes genetic divergence and speciation. Here, using a dataset of 144 wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities, we show that chimpanzees exhibit greater behavioural diversity in environments with more variability — in both recent and historical timescales. Notably, distance from Pleistocene forest refugia is associated with the presence of a larger number of behavioural traits, including both tool and non-tool use behaviours. Since more than half of the behaviours investigated are also likely to be cultural, we suggest that environmental variability was a critical evolutionary force promoting the behavioural, as well as cultural diversification of great apes.
Keywords
Article, /631/181/1403, /631/601/18, /704/158/856, /141, article
Identifiers
s41467-020-18176-3, 18176
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18176-3
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/316779
Rights
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Licence URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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