Data from: Comparative analysis of animal growth: a primate continuum revealed by a new dimensionless growth rate coefficient

The comparative analysis of animal growth still awaits full integration into life history studies, partially due to the difficulty of defining a comparable measure of growth rate across species. Using growth data from 50 primate species, we introduce a modified ‘general growth model’ and a dimensionless growth rate coefficient β that controls for size scaling and phylogenetic effects in the distribution of growth rates. Our results contradict the prevailing idea that slow growth characterizes primates as a group: the observed range of β values shows that not all primates grow slowly, with galago species exhibiting growth rates similar or above the mammalian average, while other strepsirrhines and most New World monkeys show limited reduction in growth rates. Low growth rate characterizes apes and some papionines. Phylogenetic regressions reveal associations between β and life history variables, providing tests for theories of primate growth evolution. We also show that primate slow growth is an exclusively postnatal phenomenon. Our study exemplifies how the dimensionless approach promotes the integration of growth rate data into comparative life history analysis, and demonstrates its potential applicability to other cases of adaptive diversification of animal growth patterns.

动物生长的比较分析仍有待全面融入生命史研究，部分原因在于难以在不同物种间定义可通用的生长速率衡量标准。本研究依托50种灵长类动物的生长数据，提出了改进型“通用生长模型”，以及可控制生长速率分布中体型缩放与系统发育效应的无量纲生长速率系数β。我们的研究结果与“灵长类整体以缓慢生长为特征”这一主流观点相悖：观测到的β值范围表明，并非所有灵长类都生长缓慢——婴猴（galago）类物种的生长速率接近或高于哺乳动物平均水平，而其他原猴亚目（strepsirrhines）物种以及多数新世界猴（New World monkeys）的生长速率仅出现有限降低。低生长速率是类人猿（apes）与部分狒狒类群（papionines）的典型特征。系统发育回归分析揭示了β与生命史变量间的关联，为灵长类生长演化相关理论提供了实证检验依据。本研究还证实，灵长类的缓慢生长仅为出生后现象。本研究示范了无量纲方法如何推动生长速率数据整合至比较生命史分析框架中，并证明了该方法在其他动物生长模式适应性分化场景中的潜在应用价值。