Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!uunet!bionet!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!news.funet.fi!hydra!hylka!xia
From: xia@cc.helsinki.fi
Newsgroups: bionet.population-bio
Subject: Social organization and speciation (For Alan Rogers)
Message-ID: <3315.2710dbfa@cc.helsinki.fi>
Date: 8 Oct 90 20:05:14 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
Lines: 16

Dear Alan,

I do not share your belief that inter-group isolation played
a role in primate speciation, for the following reason.

The reason was not mine, but suggested to me by Dennis
Rasmusen (Sorry for quoting your name without asking for your
permission, Dennis). Dennis pointed out that inter-group isolation
we observed today does not mean that such isolation existed many 
years ago, and it is the isolation many years ago that could explain
the species diversity we observed today in social primates. The 
inter-group isolation among social primates may well be a recent
phenomenon due to fragmentation of their habitats caused by human
activities.

Xuhua