The value of social bonds

The primary goal of the proposed project is to quantify variation in the social structure of a group of closely related primate species, the papionins, and to identify environmental and demographic factors that generate this variation. The papionins are part of an adaptive radiation that originated about the time that the hominin lineage diverged from the lineage of chimpanzees. The genomes of this group of species reflect the effects of environmental changes during the Plio-Pleistocene that shaped the availability of suitable habitat, and affected the distribution of species. Understanding how and why environmental factors shape the structure of social relationships across taxa may provide insights into the kinds of forces that shaped the lives of our hominin ancestors.