The emergence of the genus Homo is widely linked to the colonization of 'new' highly seasonal savannah habitats. However, until recently, our understanding of the possible impact of seasonality on this shift has been limited because we have little general knowledge of how seasonality affects the lives of primates. This book documents the extent of seasonality in food abundance in tropical woody vegetation, and then presents systematic analyses of the impact of seasonality in food supply on the behavioural ecology of non-human primates. Syntheses in this volume then produce broad generalizations concerning the impact of seasonality on behavioural ecology and reproduction in both human and non-human primates, and apply these insights to primate and human evolution. Written for graduate students and researchers in biological anthropology and behavioural ecology, this is an absorbing account of how seasonality may have affected an important episode in our own evolution.

Table of Contents:
Preface; Part I. Introduction: 1. Seasonality in primate ecology, reproduction, and life history: an overview Carel P. van Schaik and Diane K. Brockman; Part II. Seasonal Habitats: 2. Tropical climates and phenology: a primate perspective Carel P. van Schaik and Kristina Pfannes; Part III. Seasonality and Behavioural Ecology: 3. The influence of seasonality on primate diet and ranging Claire Hemingway and Nora Bynum; 4. Seasonality in predation risk: varying activity periods in lemurs and other primates Michele Rasmussen; 5. Physiological adaptations to seasonality in nocturnal primates Jutta Schmid and Peter Kappeler; 6. Seasonality and long-term change in a savannah environment Susan C. Alberts, Jeanne Altmann, Julie A Hollister-Smith, Raphael S. Mututua, Serah N. Sayialel, Philip M. Muruthi and Kinyua Warutere; 7. Day length seasonality and the thermal environment Russell Hill; 8. Seasonality in hunting by nonhuman primates John C. Mitani and David P. Watts; 9. Human hunting seasonality Rebecca Bliege-Bird and Douglas W. Bird; Part IV. Seasonality, Reproduction, and Social Organisation: 10. Seasonality and reproductive function Diane K. Brockman and Carel P. van Schaik; 11. Seasonality of primate births in relation to climate Charles Janson and Jennifer Verdolin; 12. Energetic responses to food availability in the great apes: implications for hominin evolution Cheryl D. Knott; 13. Human birth seasonality Peter T. Ellison, Claudia R. Valeggia and Diana S. Sherry; 14. Seasonality, social organisation, and sexual dimorphism in primates J. Michael Plavcan, Carel P. van Schaik and W. Scott McGraw; Part V. Seasonality and Community Ecology: 15. Seasonality and primate communities Carel P. van Schaik, Richard Madden and Jörg U. Ganzhorn; 16. Primate diversity and environmental seasonality in historical perspective Nina G. Jablonski; Part VI. Seasonality and Human Evolution: 17. Tropical and temperate seasonal influences on human evolution Kaye Reed and Jennifer L. Fish; 18. Orbital controls on seasonality John D. Kingston; 19. What do studies of primate seasonality tell us about human evolution? Diane K. Brockman.