Evolution of human pair bonds as a consequence of male-biased mating sex ratios?

Abstract

AbstractCompared to our closest primate relatives, human life history involves greater longevity, which includes a distinctive postmenopausal life stage. The extension of the human lifes-pan (and continued fertility in old males) without lengthening female fertility directly changes the ratio of fertile males to fertile females, called the adult sex ratio (ASR). Additionally, this affects a more fine-grained ratio, the operational sex ratio (OSR), defined as the ratio of males to females currently able to conceive. Here, we construct an ODE model with minimal age structure, in which males compete for paternities using either a multiple-mating or mate-guarding strategy. Our focus is on investigating the differences of strategy choice between populations with chimpanzee-like and human-like life histories. By simulating the system, we determine the dominant strategy and its dependence on various parameter combinations. We introduce a new measure we call the lifetime paternity opportunities (LPO) of a given male strategy. The LPO directly calculates the payoffs of different male strategies and hence enables us to predict when strategies may shift. Our results show that an increase in OSR and ASR correlates well with a change in the dominant strategy from multiple mating to guarding.