Diet and Phylogeny in Primate Communities

Abstract

Phylogeny is associated with most aspects of the biology of primates and other animals, such as body form, locomotion, gross diet, and social behavior. Closely related organisms tend to be similar to one another. In this article we examine the extent to which the dietary overlap of individual primate species within a community reflects their phylogenetic relationships. That is, do closely related taxa of primates tend to eat parts of the same species and genera of plants? We collected dietary data and phylogenetic relationships from studies of primate communities at five sites: the Krau Game Reserve in Malaysia, Manu National Park in Peru, Raleighvalen-Voltsberg in Suriname, Kibale Forest in Uganda, and Tai Forest in Ivory Coast. On the basis of a Mantel test, matrices of dietary overlap and phylogenetic divergence dates show significant correlations (P < 0.05) between diet and divergence times in all communities except Manu. However, tests that compare branching sequences between cladograms of phylogeny and dendrograms of dietary similarity yield few clear results. The widespread correlations between consumption of specific plant taxa and phylogenetic relatedness in studies on different continents using various methods of data collection are a robust result and contrast with other studies finding a weak relationship between diet and phylogeny when diet is measured as proportions of fruit, leaves, and fauna. Further investigations of the relationship between diet and phylogeny could profit by careful design of uniform sampling strategies and consideration of additional factors such as seasonality and food availability.