Summary: Kessler et al. (2012)

The evolution of social systems has been largely influenced by kin selection. Within a social group, the ability to recognize paternal kin is important for minimizing inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity. Kessler et al. (2012) investigated vocal paternal kin recognition in the grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), one of the first studies to do so. They analysed ultrasonic male courtship and alarm calls, and found that advertisement calls contain patrilineal signatures, which females use to assess relatedness of males. Alarm calls did not seem to contain these signatures. Kessler et al. (2012) conclude that paternal kin recognition is not reliant on brain size or social complexity, but could be the ancestral state from which more complex, kin-based sociality has arisen.