Multiple pathways to paternal care in primates: The case studies we have presented here challenge the assumption that male parental care & extended breeding bonds are strictly limited to species that live in pairs or form cooperatively breeding groups

Pathways to paternal care in primates. Stacy Rosenbaum, Joan B. Silk. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, March 15 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21942

Abstract: Natural selection will favor male care when males have limited alternative mating opportunities, can invest in their own offspring, and when care enhances males' fitness. These conditions are easiest to fulfill in pair-bonded species, but neither male care nor stable “breeding bonds” that facilitate it are limited to pair-bonded species. We review evidence of paternal care and extended breeding bonds in owl monkeys, baboons, Assamese macaques, mountain gorillas, and chimpanzees. The data, which span social/mating systems and ecologies, suggest that there are multiple pathways by which conditions conducive to male care can arise. This diversity highlights the difficulty of making inferences about the emergence of male care in early hominins based on single traits visible in the fossil record. We discuss what types of data are most needed and the questions yet to be answered about the evolution of male care and extended breeding bonds in the primate order.