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Speeding in the slow lane: Phylogenetic comparative analyses reveal that not all human life history traits are exceptional.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Miller, IF; Churchill, SE; Nunn, CL
Published in: Journal of human evolution
May 2019

Humans are thought to exhibit an unusual suite of life history traits relative to other primates, with a longer lifespan, later age at first reproduction, and shorter interbirth interval. These assumptions are key components of popular hypotheses about human life history evolution, but they have yet to be investigated phylogenetically. We applied two phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate whether these human life history traits differ from expectations based on other primates: one fits and selects between Brownian and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck models of trait evolution; the other tests for phylogenetic outliers by predicting phenotypic characteristics based on trait covariation and phylogeny for a species of interest. We found that humans have exceptionally short interbirth intervals, long lifespans, and high birth masses. We failed to find evidence that humans have a delayed age at first reproduction relative to body mass or other covariates. Overall, our results support several previous assertions about the uniqueness of human life history characteristics and the importance of cooperative breeding and socioecology in human life history evolution. However, we suggest that several hypotheses about human life history need to be revised in light of our finding that humans do not have a delayed age at first reproduction.

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Published In

Journal of human evolution

DOI

EISSN

1095-8606

ISSN

0047-2484

Publication Date

May 2019

Volume

130

Start / End Page

36 / 44

Related Subject Headings

  • Reproduction
  • Primates
  • Phylogeny
  • Life History Traits
  • Humans
  • Biological Evolution
  • Anthropology
  • Animals
  • 4301 Archaeology
  • 3104 Evolutionary biology
 

Citation

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Miller, I. F., Churchill, S. E., & Nunn, C. L. (2019). Speeding in the slow lane: Phylogenetic comparative analyses reveal that not all human life history traits are exceptional. Journal of Human Evolution, 130, 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.12.007
Miller, Ian F., Steven E. Churchill, and Charles L. Nunn. “Speeding in the slow lane: Phylogenetic comparative analyses reveal that not all human life history traits are exceptional.Journal of Human Evolution 130 (May 2019): 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.12.007.
Miller IF, Churchill SE, Nunn CL. Speeding in the slow lane: Phylogenetic comparative analyses reveal that not all human life history traits are exceptional. Journal of human evolution. 2019 May;130:36–44.
Miller, Ian F., et al. “Speeding in the slow lane: Phylogenetic comparative analyses reveal that not all human life history traits are exceptional.Journal of Human Evolution, vol. 130, May 2019, pp. 36–44. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.12.007.
Miller IF, Churchill SE, Nunn CL. Speeding in the slow lane: Phylogenetic comparative analyses reveal that not all human life history traits are exceptional. Journal of human evolution. 2019 May;130:36–44.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of human evolution

DOI

EISSN

1095-8606

ISSN

0047-2484

Publication Date

May 2019

Volume

130

Start / End Page

36 / 44

Related Subject Headings

  • Reproduction
  • Primates
  • Phylogeny
  • Life History Traits
  • Humans
  • Biological Evolution
  • Anthropology
  • Animals
  • 4301 Archaeology
  • 3104 Evolutionary biology