SOCIAL PRESSURES HAVE SELECTED FOR AN EXTENDED JUVENILE PERIOD IN PRIMATES

Primates are highly social animals. As such, they utilize a large repe rtoire of social skills to manage their complex and dynamic social env ironments. In order to acquire complex social skills, primates require an extended learning period. Here I perform a comparative analysis us ing independent contrasts to show that social pressures have Favored a n extension in the proportion of time primates spend as juveniles. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.