Domestication Lab, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Department of Interdisciplinary Life Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Behavioral Ecology and Ecophysiology, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
Elife. 2023 Sep 5;12:RP86635. doi: 10.7554/eLife.86635.
Adolescent growth spurts (GSs) in body length seem to be absent in non-human primates and are considered a distinct human trait. However, this distinction between present and absent length-GSs may reflect a mathematical artefact that makes it arbitrary. We first outline how scaling issues and inappropriate comparisons between length (linear) and weight (volume) growth rates result in misleading interpretations like the absence of length-GSs in non-human primates despite pronounced weight-GSs, or temporal delays between length- and weight-GSs. We then apply a scale-corrected approach to a comprehensive dataset on 258 zoo-housed bonobos that includes weight and length growth as well as several physiological markers related to growth and adolescence. We found pronounced GSs in body weight and length in both sexes. Weight and length growth trajectories corresponded with each other and with patterns of testosterone and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3 levels, resembling adolescent GSs in humans. We further re-interpreted published data of non-human primates, which showed that aligned GSs in weight and length exist not only in bonobos. Altogether, our results emphasize the importance of considering scaling laws when interpreting growth curves in general, and further show that pronounced, human-like adolescent length-GSs exist in bonobos and probably also many other non-human primates.
青春期生长突增（GSs）在身体长度上似乎不存在于非人类灵长类动物中，被认为是人类特有的特征。然而，这种存在和不存在长度-GSs 的区别可能反映了一种数学假象，使得这种区别具有任意性。我们首先概述了如何通过比例问题以及在长度（线性）和体重（体积）增长率之间进行不适当的比较，导致出现误导性的解释，例如尽管存在明显的体重-GSs，但非人类灵长类动物中不存在长度-GSs，或者长度-GSs 和体重-GSs 之间存在时间延迟。然后，我们将一种经过比例校正的方法应用于一个关于 258 只圈养的倭黑猩猩的综合数据集，该数据集包括体重和长度的生长以及与生长和青春期相关的几个生理标志物。我们发现，雄性和雌性的体重和长度都存在明显的 GSs。体重和长度的生长轨迹相互对应，与睾酮和胰岛素样生长因子结合蛋白 3 水平的模式一致，类似于人类的青春期 GSs。我们进一步重新解释了非人类灵长类动物的已发表数据，这些数据表明，不仅在倭黑猩猩中，而且在其他许多非人类灵长类动物中，体重和长度都存在一致的 GSs。总的来说，我们的结果强调了在解释生长曲线时考虑比例定律的重要性，进一步表明，在倭黑猩猩中以及可能在许多其他非人类灵长类动物中，存在明显的、类似人类的青春期长度-GSs。
