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Introduction - Malagasy habitats undergo vast seasonal changes in temperature and rainfall regimes, which in turn strongly infl uence the biology and life history of their inhabitants (Wright, 1999 ). The western dry deciduous forests show a yearly alternation between a distinct dry season and a hot and humid rainy season (Jury, 2003 ). Correspondingly, the phenology of dry forest trees – i.e., the availability of leaves, fl owers and fruits – changes substantially over the course of a year (Sorg and Rohner, 1996 ; Thorén et al ., 2011 ). As a result, plant food resources are not available evenly throughout the yearly cycle, and a relatively resource-poor dry season can be distinguished from a relatively resource-rich rainy season (Hladik et al ., 1980 ). The length of both seasons varies across Madagascar due to a geographical gradient in minimal temperatures and annual rainfall . Adaptive responses of lemurs to this environmental seasonality include seasonal changes in general activity (Schmid and Kappeler, 1998 ; Wright, 1999 ; Dausmann et al ., 2004 ), shelter usage pattern (Ramanankirahina et al ., 2012 ), body mass (Hladik et al ., 1980 ; Schmid and Kappeler, 1998 ; Atsalis, 1999 ; Randrianambinina et al ., 2003 ), reproduction (Hladik et al ., 1980 ; Wright, 1999 ), and feeding regime (Hladik et al ., 1980 ; Thorén et al ., 2011 ). It is known, for example, that diademed sifakas ( Propithecus diadema ) shift their diet from fruits and seeds to non-fruit foods, such as leaves and fl owers, and decrease food ingestion and general feeding time during the dry season (Irwin et al ., 2014 ). This ability to fl exibly change behavior or resource usage patterns in view of certain environmental changes is the result of adaptive plasticity (Nussey et al ., 2007 ). Adaptive plasticity in seasonal feeding regimes can be expected to be highest in omnivorous species that can, in principle, switch between different sources of energy and protein by consuming different food p

Aim Phylogenetics has an important role in conservation biogeography. However, there are few data on the phylogenetic diversity of African primates. The phylogenetic diversity (PD) of a species is a measure of its taxonomic distinctness and can be estimated by looking at the phylogenetic relationships among taxa. Species-specific metrics on PD can then be used to determine conservation priorities at various biogeographical scales. We used PD metrics to rank 55 African primate species according to their conservation priorities at the country level and within six African biogeographical regions. We also addressed the following question: are there differences in conservation rankings between the IUCN Red List and our PD metrics? Location Africa. Methods We created a consensus phylogeny for all African primate clades based on genetic studies. Analyses of species distributions were determined using presence/absence scores at two levels: country and biogeographical region. A node-based method that standardizes for widespread taxa and endemicity was used to calculate PD indices. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to convert one of the standardized, phylogenetic indices into three clusters that could be ranked and compared with the main IUCN conservation rankings of endangered, vulnerable, and lower risk. Results At the country and region levels, the top-priority species in terms of PD are Pan paniscus, Macaca sylvanus, Arctocebus calabarensis, Gorilla beringei, Arctocebus aureus, Allenopithecus nigroviridis, Gorilla gorilla, Procolobus verus, Cercopithecus solatus, Cercocebus galeritus, Colobus angolensis, Theropithecus gelada, Galagoides zanzibaricus, Galagoides granti, and Procolobus (Piliocolobus) badius. Geographic rankings were highest for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (country level) and Central Africa (region level). Although there were no overall differences between IUCN conservation ranks and the PD rankings, there were significant differences between t