Body mass in comparative primatology
Abstract
Data are presented on adult body mass for 230 of 249 primate species, based on a review of the literature and previously unpublished data. The issues involved in collecting data on adult body mass are discussed, including the definition of adults, the effects of habitat and pregnancy, the strategy for pooling data on single species from multiple studies, and use of an appropriate number of significant figures. An analysis of variability in body mass indicates that the coefficient of variation for body mass increases with increasing species mean mass. Evaluation of several previous body mass reviews reveals a number of shortcomings with data that have been used often in comparative studies.
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The standard deviation of male body mass within recent human populations ranges around 11 kg.
“The standard deviation of male body mass within recent human populations ranges around 11 kg, a value near the midpoint of within-sex variation in other primate species [16].”
From Selection for smaller brains in Holocene human evolution (2011) · cites this paper as [16]
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- Authors
- Smith, R. J., & Jungers, W. L.
- Affiliations
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- Stony Brook University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Human Evolution
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1997-06
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 523-559
- ISSN
- 0047-2484 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2146926439
- Cited by
- 1,307
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 31 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 36 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 36 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 83 · 2019: 45 · 2018: 87 · 2017: 56 · 2016: 50 · 2015: 65 · 2014: 57 · 2013: 70 · 2012: 46
- FWCI
- 36.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Human Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Geometry and Topology › Morphological variations and asymmetry
- Keywords
- adult body mass, coefficient of variation, primate taxonomy, data pooling
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Animals, Body Constitution, Body Weight, Female, Humans, Lactation, Male, Pregnancy, Primates, Sex Characteristics, Species Specificity
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