通过整合生态学、地质学、化石、行为学和基因组分析，研究人员发现居住在较冷环境中的亚洲叶猴往往生活在更大、更复杂的群体中。具体来说，过去600万年的冰川期促进了参与寒冷相关的能量代谢和神经激素调节基因的选择。更有效的多巴胺和催产素途径在亚洲叶猴中发展起来，这可能有利于延长母亲的护理和哺乳期，增加了婴儿在寒冷环境中的存活率。这些适应性变化似乎加强了个体间的隶属关系，增加了雄性与雄性之间的容忍度，并促进了从独立的孤雄群体到大型多层次社会的逐步聚集。
据介绍，对支撑灵长类动物社会演化的生物机制仍然知之甚少。亚洲猴类显示出一系列的社会组织，这使它们成为研究社会演化的良好模型。
附：英文原文
Title: Adaptations to a cold climate promoted social evolution in Asian colobine primates
Author: Xiao-Guang Qi, Jinwei Wu, Lan Zhao, Lu Wang, Xuanmin Guang, Paul A. Garber, Christopher Opie, Yuan Yuan, Runjie Diao, Gang Li, Kun Wang, Ruliang Pan, Weihong Ji, Hailu Sun, Zhi-Pang Huang, Chunzhong Xu, Arief B. Witarto, Rui Jia, Chi Zhang, Cheng Deng, Qiang Qiu, Guojie Zhang, Cyril C. Grueter, Dongdong Wu, Baoguo Li
Issue&Volume: 2023-06-02
Abstract: The biological mechanisms that underpin primate social evolution remain poorly understood. Asian colobines display a range of social organizations, which makes them good models for investigating social evolution. By integrating ecological, geological, fossil, behavioral, and genomic analyses, we found that colobine primates that inhabit colder environments tend to live in larger, more complex groups. Specifically, glacial periods during the past 6 million years promoted the selection of genes involved in cold-related energy metabolism and neurohormonal regulation. More-efficient dopamine and oxytocin pathways developed in odd-nosed monkeys, which may have favored the prolongation of maternal care and lactation, increasing infant survival in cold environments. These adaptive changes appear to have strengthened interindividual affiliation, increased male-male tolerance, and facilitated the stepwise aggregation from independent one-male groups to large multilevel societies.
DOI: abl8621
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl8621