Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Evolutionary biology (Communication arising)

Significance of primate sexual swellings

Nature volume 420, page 143 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Zinner et al. question our finding that the size of a female wild baboon's sexual swellings predicts her lifetime reproductive success, suggesting that we should have controlled for female height in our analyses of female fitness. But the issue is not whether a female's fitness is independent of her height, but whether males draw inferences about her fitness from her sexual swelling, and do so independently of her height. Our results indicate that they do1,2, supporting the hypothesis that sexual swellings advertise female reproductive value.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

39,95 €

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Domb, L. G. Sexual Swellings in Wild Baboons (Papio cynocephalus anubis) at Gombe National Park, Tanzania. Thesis, Harvard Univ. (2000).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Domb, L. G. & Pagel, M. Nature 410, 204–206 (2001).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hausfater, G. Dominance and Reproduction in Baboons (Karger, Basel, 1975).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Hamilton, W. J. in Primate Paternalism (ed. Taub, D. M.) 309–335 (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1984).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Thompson, J. et al. Biol. Reprod. 46, 879–884 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Heistermann, M., Mohle, U., Vervaecke, H., van Elsacker, L. & Hodges, J. Biol. Reprod. 55, 844–853 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Whitten, P. & Russell, E. Am. J. Primatol. 40, 67–82 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Nunn, C. L. Anim. Behav. 58, 229–246 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Boesch, C. & Boesch-Achermann, H. The Chimpanzees of the Tai Forest: Behavioral Ecology and Evolution (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Wrangham, R. in Behavioral Diversity in Chimpanzees and Bonobos (eds Boesch, C., Hohmann, G. & Marchant, L.) (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2002).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lawrenceville School, PO Box 6008, Lawrenceville, 08648, New Jersey, USA

    Leah G. Domb

  2. School of Animal and Microbial Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AJ, UK

    Mark Pagel

Authors
  1. Leah G. Domb
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mark Pagel
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leah G. Domb.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Domb, L., Pagel, M. Significance of primate sexual swellings. Nature 420, 143 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/420143a

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/420143a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing