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Morphological Variation in Populations of Eulemur albocollaris and E. fulvus rufus

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Abstract

Sexual dimorphism in body size and canine weaponry is commonly associated with high levels of male-male competition. When group living species do not rely heavily on male-male competition for access to females, sperm competition may represent a viable alternative strategy. Unlike most haplorhine primates, lemurs are typically monomorphic in body weight and canine height. We assessed variability of body mass dimorphism and canine size dimorphism in brown lemurs using morphometric data from 3 populations in southeastern Madagascar: Eulemur fulvus rufus, E. albocollaris, and hybrids of the species. We found significant male-biased canine dimorphism in E. albocollaris in conjunction with body-size monomorphism. We observed similar patterns in the hybrids, but E. fulvus rufus exhibited significant female-biased size dimorphism and canine monomorphism. Testes volume was relatively high across study populations. Thus, sperm competition appears to be strong in brown lemurs. E. albocollaris males combine sperm competition with large canines, but not higher body mass, indicating a difference in sexual strategy from most lemurs. Patterns of body mass and canine size dimorphism are not uniform across brown lemur populations, indicating that future work on these populations can explicitly test models that predict relationships between size dimorphism and various types of competition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada

    Steig E. Johnson

  2. Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology, Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, 2110 G St. NW, Washington, DC, 20052

    Adam D. Gordon

  3. Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 109 Davenport Hall, Urbana, Illinois, 61801

    Rebecca M. Stumpf

  4. Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, 78712

    Deborah J. Overdorff

  5. Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, 11794

    Patricia C. Wright

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Johnson, S.E., Gordon, A.D., Stumpf, R.M. et al. Morphological Variation in Populations of Eulemur albocollaris and E. fulvus rufus . Int J Primatol 26, 1399–1416 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-005-8858-6

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