Copyright

Melissa Emery Thompson; Kristin Sabbi;

Published On

2024-06-14

Page Range

pp. 423–474

Language

  • English

Print Length

52 pages

19. Evolutionary Demography of the Great Apes

Chapter of: Human Evolutionary Demography (pp. 423–474)

The living hominids share a suite of life history features that distinguishes them from other primates, including larger body size, extended juvenile growth and development, and a long lifespan. While modern humans exhibit many distinctions from their great ape relatives, these species provide an important reference by which to infer the life history characteristics of our last common ancestor. Demographic analysis of the great apes reveals specifically how life histories changed during recent human evolution and can provide perspective on inter- and intra-specific variation in life history features. In this chapter, we provide the most detailed information available on demographic characteristics of great apes, comparisons with humans, and discussion of the proximate factors that influence life history variation across the clade.

Contributors

Melissa Emery Thompson

(author)
Professor of Anthropology at University of New Mexico
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2451-6397
https://anthropology.unm.edu/people/faculty/profile/melissa-emery-thompson.html

Melissa Emery Thompson is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico and a Co-Director of the Kibale Chimpanzee Project, where she has studied wild chimpanzees for over 20 years. Her research uses great apes as comparative models to investigate the evolution of human life history patterns.

Kristin Sabbi

(author)
College Fellow in Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5091-7090
https://krissabbi.weebly.com/

Kris Sabbi is a College Fellow in Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and a researcher with the Kibale Chimpanzee Project. Her work focuses on primate social and hormonal development from infancy to reproductive maturity.