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Sex Differences in Wild Chimpanzee Behavior Emerge during Infancy
The role of biological and social influences on sex differences in human child development is a persistent topic of discussion and debate. Given their many similarities to humans, chimpanzees are an important study species for understanding the biological and evolutionary roots of sex differences in...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049619/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24911160 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099099 |
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author | Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V. Markham, A. Catherine Heintz, Matthew R. Anderson, Karen E. Ciuk, David J. Goodall, Jane Murray, Carson M. |
author_facet | Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V. Markham, A. Catherine Heintz, Matthew R. Anderson, Karen E. Ciuk, David J. Goodall, Jane Murray, Carson M. |
author_sort | Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The role of biological and social influences on sex differences in human child development is a persistent topic of discussion and debate. Given their many similarities to humans, chimpanzees are an important study species for understanding the biological and evolutionary roots of sex differences in human development. In this study, we present the most detailed analyses of wild chimpanzee infant development to date, encompassing data from 40 infants from the long-term study of chimpanzees at Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Our goal was to characterize age-related changes, from birth to five years of age, in the percent of observation time spent performing behaviors that represent important benchmarks in nutritional, motor, and social development, and to determine whether and in which behaviors sex differences occur. Sex differences were found for indicators of social behavior, motor development and spatial independence with males being more physically precocious and peaking in play earlier than females. These results demonstrate early sex differentiation that may reflect adult reproductive strategies. Our findings also resemble those found in humans, which suggests that biologically-based sex differences may have been present in the common ancestor and operated independently from the influences of modern sex-biased parental behavior and gender socialization. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4049619 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-40496192014-06-18 Sex Differences in Wild Chimpanzee Behavior Emerge during Infancy Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V. Markham, A. Catherine Heintz, Matthew R. Anderson, Karen E. Ciuk, David J. Goodall, Jane Murray, Carson M. PLoS One Research Article The role of biological and social influences on sex differences in human child development is a persistent topic of discussion and debate. Given their many similarities to humans, chimpanzees are an important study species for understanding the biological and evolutionary roots of sex differences in human development. In this study, we present the most detailed analyses of wild chimpanzee infant development to date, encompassing data from 40 infants from the long-term study of chimpanzees at Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Our goal was to characterize age-related changes, from birth to five years of age, in the percent of observation time spent performing behaviors that represent important benchmarks in nutritional, motor, and social development, and to determine whether and in which behaviors sex differences occur. Sex differences were found for indicators of social behavior, motor development and spatial independence with males being more physically precocious and peaking in play earlier than females. These results demonstrate early sex differentiation that may reflect adult reproductive strategies. Our findings also resemble those found in humans, which suggests that biologically-based sex differences may have been present in the common ancestor and operated independently from the influences of modern sex-biased parental behavior and gender socialization. Public Library of Science 2014-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC4049619/ /pubmed/24911160 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099099 Text en © 2014 Lonsdorf et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Lonsdorf, Elizabeth V. Markham, A. Catherine Heintz, Matthew R. Anderson, Karen E. Ciuk, David J. Goodall, Jane Murray, Carson M. Sex Differences in Wild Chimpanzee Behavior Emerge during Infancy |
title | Sex Differences in Wild Chimpanzee Behavior Emerge during Infancy |
title_full | Sex Differences in Wild Chimpanzee Behavior Emerge during Infancy |
title_fullStr | Sex Differences in Wild Chimpanzee Behavior Emerge during Infancy |
title_full_unstemmed | Sex Differences in Wild Chimpanzee Behavior Emerge during Infancy |
title_short | Sex Differences in Wild Chimpanzee Behavior Emerge during Infancy |
title_sort | sex differences in wild chimpanzee behavior emerge during infancy |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049619/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24911160 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099099 |
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