DOI: 10.5061/dryad.dk10k
title: Data from: The coevolution of innovation and technical intelligence in primates

description: In birds and primates, the frequency of behavioural innovation has been
 shown to covary with absolute and relative brain size, leading to the
 suggestion that large brains allow animals to innovate, and/or that
 selection for innovativeness, together with social learning, may have
 driven brain enlargement. We examined the relationship between primate
 brain size and both technical (i.e. tool using) and non-technical
 innovation, deploying a combination of phylogenetically informed
 regression and exploratory causal graph analyses. Regression analyses
 revealed that absolute and relative brain size correlated positively with
 technical innovation, and exhibited consistently weaker, but still
 positive, relationships with non-technical innovation. These findings
 mirror similar results in birds. Our exploratory causal graph analyses
 suggested that technical innovation shares strong direct relationships
 with brain size, body size, social learning rate and social group size,
 whereas non-technical innovation did not exhibit a direct relationship
 with brain size. Nonetheless, non-technical innovation was linked to brain
 size indirectly via diet and life-history variables. Our findings support
 ‘technical intelligence’ hypotheses in linking technical innovation to
 encephalization in the restricted set of primate lineages where technical
 innovation has been reported. Our findings also provide support for a
 broad co-evolving complex of brain, behaviour, life-history, social and
 dietary variables, providing secondary support for social and ecological
 intelligence hypotheses. The ability to gain access to
 difficult-to-extract, but potentially nutrient-rich, resources through
 tool use may have conferred on some primates adaptive advantages, leading
 to selection for brain circuitry that underlies technical proficiency.
description: Supplementary
 datasetThis dataset includes
 data from 167 primate species, categorized as innovators if Reader et al.
 (2011) reported more than zero innovations for the species, and as
 non-innovators if they reported zero innovations species (column
 “Innovator”). The dataset includes species scores for different types of
 innovation which were calculated using the records of Simon Reader
 (numbers of technical innovations, non-technical innovations, technical
 innovations including extractive foraging, non-technical innovations
 excluding extractive foraging, technical foraging innovations,
 non-technical foraging innovations, technical foraging innovations
 including extractive foraging, and non-technical foraging innovations
 excluding extractive foraging), and the scores of a life history composite
 obtained using phylogenetic principal component analysis on six life
 history variables. We also provide three columns (“Species (Arnold et al.
 2010)”, “Species (Isler et al. 2008)”, and “Species (Reader et al. 2011)”)
 where we provide details on differences of nomenclature between the
 sources of the rest of the variables used in this study and the
 nomenclature in our phylogenetical tree. We used the used the 10 k Trees
 project dated consensus tree (v.3) for phylogeny (Arnold, Matthews, &
 Nunn, 2010). Body mass averages and endocraneal volume (ECV) averages per
 species were extracted from Isler et al. (2008). Measures of zoological
 records, social transmission, innovation and diet breadth were extracted
 from Reader et al. (2011). Social group size and six life history
 variables (gestation length, interbirth interval, weaning age, age of
 sexual maturity, age at first birth and maximum longevity) were extracted
 from Jones et al. (2009). Arnold, C., Matthews, L. J., & Nunn, C. L.
 (2010). The 10k Trees Website: A New Online Resource for Primate
 Phylogeny. Evolutionary Anthropology, 19(3), 114-118. doi:
 10.1002/evan.20251 Isler, K., Kirk, C. E., Miller, J. M. A., Albrecht, G.
 A., Gelvin, B. R., & Martin, R. D. (2008). Endocranial volumes of
 primate species: scaling analyses using a comprehensive and reliable data
 set. Journal of Human Evolution, 55(6), 967-978. doi:
 10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.08.004 Jones, K. E., Bielby, J., Cardillo, M.,
 Fritz, S. A., O'Dell, J., Orme, D. L., . . . Purvis, A. (2009).
 PanTHERIA: a species-level database of life history, ecology, and
 geography of extant and recently extinct mammals. Ecology, 90(9),
 2648-2648. doi: 10.1890/08-1494.1 Reader, S. M., Hager, Y., & Laland,
 K. N. (2011). The evolution of primate general and cultural intelligence.
 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,
 366(1567), 1017-1027. doi:
 http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.t0q94ESMNavarreteReaderStreetWhalenLaland_dataset.csv