Why are primates so social? Also, more specifically, why are humans so social? With the exception of primates, very few mammalian orders contain species that exhibit social behavior. Shultz et al. have provided several clues as to why primate social behavior is so different from other mammalian orders by examining data from the past 74 million years!
They discovered that the most crucial step towards sociality occurred when primates began to become diurnal rather than nocturnal. When primates were nocturnal, they tended to be solitary foragers that could avoid detection by hunting quietly in darkness. When primates began to hunt during the day, their activity became more recognizable to predators simply because they could now be detected more easily in the light. Primates who travelled and hunted in packs were more likely to survive, and thus more social primates evolved by means of natural selection. These primates were less likely to become victims of predation because each predator would only kill one or two primates in a group and, as a result, the vast majority of the organisms in the group would survive each predator attack. Also, having more primates to compete in each predator attack increases the likelihood that the predator will either die or retreat. The research suggested that these social groups were only loosely bound: members could come and go as needed. Behavior similar to this is present today in lemurs. Primates did not begin to form small groups with close social links until millions of years later.
Unlike all other primates, humans have the ability to cope in numerous different social settings. Over time, we have functioned in many complicated social settings: monogamous versus polygamous societies, nuclear family versus extended family groups, various work settings, etc. Our social flexibility both in groups and in wider society is unmatched by any other species. Shultz et al. discovered that this is a result of increased brain power (humans have more brain power than any other species). This makes perfect sense: increased brain power allows us the ability to adjust to changes in our environment. No other organism has the mental complexity to surmount this obstacle. How cool is that?
-Cristina Terhoeve
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