The evolution of male-female dominance relations in primate societies.

ABSTRACT: Historically, it was widely assumed that males dominate females socially in most mammals. However, recent studies revealed significant variation within and among species, opening new possibilities to explore the extent and drivers of sex biases in dominance relations. This study uses quantitative data from 253 populations across 121 primate species to investigate the distribution of, and factors associated with, sex biases in the outcome of male-female contests. We first showed that male-female contests are common (around half of all contests) and that males win >90% of these contests in less than 20% of populations. We next tested five hypotheses to explain sex biases in dominance relations. We found that female-biased dominance primarily occurs in primate societies where females have sub

SUBMITTER: Huchard E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12280975 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature