The evolution of social monogamy in primates is not consistently associated with male infanticide

Comparative analyses suggest that monogamous breeding systems evolved in mammals where feeding competition reduces range overlap between breeding females, preventing males from guarding more than one female at at time. In contrast, a recent analysis for primates suggests that monogamy evolved as a form of paternal care that reduces the risk of male infanticide. Here we re-examine the distribution of monogamy in primates and attempt to explain the contrasting results of the two analyses.