Even our ancestors 70 million years ago lived in pairs
Published: Wednesday, Jan 3rd 2024, 12:10
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Even the first primates almost 70 million years ago probably lived in pairs. This was shown by researchers from the University of Zurich in a new study. The social structure of our ancestors was therefore more similar to us than previously assumed.
"It has often been claimed that the ancestors of primates were loners and that other forms of social organization developed later," the researchers wrote in the study in the journal Pnas. Earlier studies therefore attempted to explain how and when pair living arose in primate evolution.
However, recent studies have shown that many of the nocturnal and therefore difficult to study primate species, which were previously thought to be solitary, actually live in pairs. These include lemurs and other so-called wet-nosed primates, as the University of Zurich (UZH) wrote in a press release on Wednesday.
Database with over 500 populations
But what does this mean for the ancestors of all primates? The researchers from the Universities of Zurich and Strasbourg (F) investigated this question in the study. To do so, they collected information on the composition of wild primate groups. This resulted in a database of almost 500 populations from over 200 primate species.
Using a complex statistical analysis, the researchers calculated the probability of individual forms of social organization from variables in this data set such as body size, diet and habitat.
Similar to people
In order to reconstruct the social organization of our ancestors almost 70 million years ago, the scientists relied on fossil finds, according to the UZH press release. These showed that the first primates were smaller than many of the species living today and lived in trees.
The result of the statistical analysis: the first primates most likely lived in different forms of social organization. Most lived in pairs, with only ten to 20 percent of individuals being loners, according to the study. "We too often - but by no means always - live in pairs, and are also embedded in extended families and larger groups and societies," said study author Adrian Jäggi in the UZH press release.
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