Melin Amanda D, Young Hilary C, Mosdossy Krisztina N, Fedigan Linda M
Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College, 6047 Silsby Hall, Hanover, NH, USA; Department of Anthropology, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada.
J Hum Evol. 2014 Jun;71:77-86. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.02.009. Epub 2014 Mar 15.
The parallel evolution of increased sensorimotor intelligence in humans and capuchins has been linked to the cognitive and manual demands of seasonal extractive faunivory. This hypothesis is attractive on theoretical grounds, but it has eluded widespread acceptance due to lack of empirical data. For instance, the effects of seasonality on the extractive foraging behaviors of capuchins are largely unknown. Here we report foraging observations on four groups of wild capuchins (Cebus capucinus) inhabiting a seasonally dry tropical forest. We also measured intra-annual variation in temperature, rainfall, and food abundance. We found that the exploitation of embedded or mechanically protected invertebrates was concentrated during periods of fruit scarcity. Such a pattern suggests that embedded insects are best characterized as a fallback food for capuchins. We discuss the implications of seasonal extractive faunivory for the evolution of sensorimotor intelligence (SMI) in capuchins and hominins and suggest that the suite of features associated with SMI, including increased manual dexterity, tool use, and innovative problem solving are cognitive adaptations among frugivores that fall back seasonally on extractable foods. The selective pressures acting on SMI are predicted to be strongest among primates living in the most seasonal environments. This model is proffered to explain the differences in tool use between capuchin lineages, and SMI as an adaptation to extractive foraging is suggested to play an important role in hominin evolution.
人类和卷尾猴感觉运动智力增强的平行进化与季节性捕食动物的认知和手工需求有关。这一假设在理论上很有吸引力，但由于缺乏实证数据，尚未得到广泛认可。例如，季节性对卷尾猴捕食行为的影响在很大程度上尚不清楚。在这里，我们报告了对生活在季节性干燥热带森林中的四组野生卷尾猴（白领卷尾猴）的觅食观察结果。我们还测量了温度、降雨量和食物丰度的年内变化。我们发现，对嵌入或有机械保护的无脊椎动物的利用集中在水果稀缺的时期。这种模式表明，嵌入昆虫最适合被描述为卷尾猴的替代食物。我们讨论了季节性捕食动物对卷尾猴和原始人类感觉运动智力（SMI）进化的影响，并表明与SMI相关的一系列特征，包括手部灵活性增加、工具使用和创新问题解决能力，是食果动物的认知适应，它们在季节性地依赖可提取食物。预计作用于SMI的选择压力在生活在最具季节性环境中的灵长类动物中最为强烈。提出这一模型来解释卷尾猴谱系之间工具使用的差异，并认为SMI作为对捕食性觅食的一种适应在原始人类进化中起重要作用。
