Katie Hinde and Lauren Milligan are awesome!

Hurry for Dr. Katie Hinde (University of California Davis) and Dr. Lauren Milligan (University of California Berkeley! Their new article in Evolutionary Anthropology, titled "Primate milk: Proximate mechanisms and ultimate perspectives" is a brilliant review of lactation and milk synthesis in the primates, setting a new bar for evolutionarily driven milk research and exploration of the role of early life nutritional environments in the evolution of life histories. Elegant!

Abstract:
To understand the evolutionary forces that have shaped primate lactation strategies, it is important to understand the proximate mechanisms of milk synthesis and their ecological and phylogenetic contexts. The lactation strategy of a species has four interrelated dimensions: the frequency and duration of nursing bouts, the period of lactation until weaning, the number and sex ratio of infants that a mother rears simultaneously, and the composition and yield of the milk that mothers synthesize. Milk synthesis, arguably the most physiologically costly component of rearing infants, remains the least studied. Energy transfer becomes energetically less efficient, transitioning from placental support to milk synthesis1, 2 just as the energy requirements for infant growth, development, and behavioral activity substantially increase. Here we review primate lactation biology and milk synthesis, integrating studies from anthropology, biology, nutrition, animal science, immunology, and biochemistry, to identify the derived and ancestral features of primate milks and enhance our understanding of primate life history.

Free access to BANDIT articles in Wiley-Blackwell journals

The BANDIT blog has teamed with the good people at Wiley-Blackwell to provide free access to highlighted articles in American Journal of Primatology, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, American Journal of Human Biology, and Evolutionary Anthropology. BANDIT will no longer be posting full pdfs of articles, but you can reach the official Wiley-Blackwell pdf from BANDIT links. Caveat: free access to these articles will expire within a few days, so be sure to visit the blog frequently to check on article updates.

Dr. Erin Riley's new paper in Evolutionary Anthropology

A woman who invokes Alfred Russell Wallace AND uses an awesome word like "depauperate" in her abstract has a mind to be reckoned with. Plus, I always covet her earrings (your miles may vary). Erin is an assistant professor of Anthropology at San Diego State University.

The Endemic Seven: Four Decades of Research on the Sulawesi Macaques