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Genetic Evidence For Long-Term Population Decline In A Savannah Dwelling Primate: Inferences From A Hierarchical Bayesian Model, Jay F. Storz, Mark A. Beaumont, Susan C. Alberts

Jay F. Storz Publications

The purpose of this study was to test for evidence that savannah baboons (Papio cynocephalus) underwent a population expansion in concert with a hypothesized expansion of African human and chimpanzee populations during the late Pleistocene. The rationale is that any type of environmental event sufficient to cause simultaneous population expansions in African humans and chimpanzees would also be expected to affect other codistributed mammals. To test for genetic evidence of population expansion or contraction, we performed a coalescent analysis of multilocus microsatellite data using a hierarchical Bayesian model. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations were used to estimate …