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Animal behaviour

Lethal violence deep in the human lineage

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Researchers estimate that the incidence of human lethal violence at the time of the origin of our species was about six times higher than for the average mammal, but about as violent as expected, given our great-ape ancestry. See Letter p.233

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Figure 1: Rates of lethal violence in a mammalian family tree.
Figure 2: Primate violence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mark Pagel is in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6UR, UK.,

    Mark Pagel

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  1. Mark Pagel
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Correspondence to Mark Pagel.

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Pagel, M. Lethal violence deep in the human lineage. Nature 538, 180–181 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19474

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