Digit ratio (2D:4D) and dominance rank in female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) |
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Authors: | Emma Nelson Christy L Hoffman Melissa S Gerald Susanne Shultz |
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Institution: | (1) School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, Hartley Building, Brownlow Street, Liverpool, L69 3GS, UK;(2) Department of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago, 5730 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA;(3) Department of Medicine, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR 00936-5067, USA;(4) Laboratory for Primate Morphology and Genetics, University of Puerto Rico Medical School, P.O. Box 365067, San Juan, PR 00936-5067, USA;(5) Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, 64 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6PN, UK |
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Abstract: | Female rhesus macaques exhibit matrilineal dominance structures, and high dominance rank confers fitness benefits across a
lifetime and across generations. Rank effects are “inherited” through social processes that are well understood; however,
biological mechanisms that might impact these processes are not well known. Recently, it has been shown that prenatal androgens
appear to be implicated in supporting dominance rank hierarchies in some mammals. In humans, interindividual differences in
the second (index) to fourth (ring) digit ratio (2D:4D) have been linked indirectly to variation in prenatal androgens, with
low 2D:4D in both sexes associated with higher inferred prenatal androgen effects. 2D:4D has also been related to dominant
social behavior and has been shown to co-vary with social systems across nonhuman primate species. Here, we investigate how
2D:4D co-varies with socially inherited dominance rank in female rhesus macaques. Low 2D:4D was associated with higher-ranking
females, while higher 2D:4D was associated with lower-ranking females. Similar relationships were also shown between ranked
families within matrilines. This is the first study to show such a relationship between 2D:4D and dominance rank in a nonhuman
primate and suggests that prenatal androgen effects could be involved in the maintenance of dominance rank in female cercopithecine
primates. |
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