March 11,
2019, New York
University
Shorter
intervals between primate births are associated with higher mortality rates in
offspring, finds a new study of macaque monkeys. The results are consistent
with previous research on human birth intervals, suggesting that this is a
pattern of evolutionary origin.
"Despite
the extensive body of research showing a relationship between short birth
intervals and high offspring mortality in
humans, we have lacked studies outside of humans, especially in non-human primates,"
observes James Higham, an associate professor in New York University's
Department of Anthropology and the senior author of the study, which appears in
the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "This
new research helps fill the gap by clarifying the biological link between birth
intervals and offspring mortality in a general evolutionary framework."
"We
provide some of the first such data, from free-ranging rhesus macaques, and
show that the risk of a short birth interval to an offspring is contingent on
the survival of its older or younger sibling, who may constrain the maternal
resources available for the offspring," adds Susie Lee, a doctoral candidate in
NYU's anthropology program and one of the paper's co-authors.
The study
also included Angelina V. Ruiz-Lambides, associate director of the Cayo
Santiago field station of the Caribbean Primate Research Center at the
University of Puerto Rico.
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