Why do people visit primate tourism sites? Investigating macaque tourism in Japan and Indonesia

Primates - Primates are popular species in wildlife tourism contexts and provide economic benefits to habitat countries where primate-based tourism activities are a part of the country’s...     

Occam’s razor revisited: guenon species morphology supports evidence for an African influence in Bronze Age Aegean fresco primate iconography from Akrotiri,Thera

Primates - In a recent exchange, Pareja et al. (Primates 61: 159–168, 2020a; Primates 61: 767–774, 2020b) and Urbani and Youlatos (Primates, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-020-00825-2 ,...     

Professor Masao Kawai,a pioneer and leading scholar in primatology and writer of animal stories for children

Primates - This Editorial is dedicated to Professor Masao Kawai (Fig. 1), who passed away on May 14th, 2021. He served as the sixth Editor-in-Chief of Primates for 15 years...     

Evolution of C,D and S-Type Cystatins in Mammals: An Extensive Gene Duplication in Primates

Cystatins are a family of inhibitors of cysteine peptidases that comprises the salivary cystatins (D and S-type cystatins) and cystatin C. These cystatins are encoded by a multigene family (CST3, CST5, CST4, CST1 and CST2) organized in tandem in the human genome. Their presence and functional importance in human saliva has been reported, however the distribution of these proteins in other mammals is still unclear. Here, we performed a proteomic analysis of the saliva of several mammals and studied the evolution of this multigene family. The proteomic analysis detected S-type cystatins (S, SA, and SN) in human saliva and cystatin D in rat saliva. The evolutionary analysis showed that the cystatin C encoding gene is present in species of the most representative mammalian groups, i.e. Artiodactyla, Rodentia, Lagomorpha, Carnivora and Primates. On the other hand, D and S-type cystatins are mainly retrieved from Primates, and especially the evolution of S-type cystatins seems to be a dynamic process as seen in Pongo abelii genome where several copies of CST1-like gene (cystatin SN) were found. In Rodents, a group of cystatins previously identified as D and S has also evolved. Despite the high divergence of the amino acid sequence, their position in the phylogenetic tree and their genome organization suggests a common origin with those of the Primates. These results suggest that the D and S type cystatins have emerged before the mammalian radiation and were retained only in Primates and Rodents. Although the mechanisms driving the evolution of cystatins are unknown, it seems to be a dynamic process with several gene duplications evolving according to the birth-and-death model of evolution. The factors that led to the appearance of a group of saliva-specific cystatins in Primates and its rapid evolution remain undetermined, but may be associated with an adaptive advantage.     

Architectural properties of the musculoskeletal system in the shoulder of two callitrichid primate species derived from virtual dissection

Primates - Callitrichidae are small, arboreal New World primates that utilize a variety of locomotor behaviors including trunk-to-trunk leaping (TTL) and horizontal locomotion which involve...     

Evaluation of an enrichment programme for a colony of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) in a rescue centre

Primates - Long-tailed macaques are highly social primates that are commonly used in biomedical research as animal models. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different kinds of...     

Phylogenetic analyses of complete mitochondrial genome sequences suggest a basal divergence of the enigmatic rodent <Emphasis Type="Italic">Anomalurus</Emphasis>

Background  

Phylogenetic relationships between Lagomorpha, Rodentia and Primates and their allies (Euarchontoglires) have long been debated. While it is now generally agreed that Rodentia constitutes a monophyletic sister-group of Lagomorpha and that this clade (Glires) is sister to Primates and Dermoptera, higher-level relationships within Rodentia remain contentious.     

Living in tiny fragments: a glimpse at the ecology of Goodman’s mouse lemurs (Microcebus lehilahytsara) in the relic forest of Ankafobe,Central Highlands,Madagascar

Primates - Habitat fragmentation is one of the major types of anthropogenic change, though fragmented landscapes predate human intervention. At present, the Central Highlands of Madagascar are...     

Population size and habitat preference of the Omo River guereza (Colobus guereza guereza) in a multi-habitat matrix in the central highlands of Ethiopia

Primates - Given the current rate of habitat degradation and loss in the tropics, data on primate population densities and habitat use are indispensable for assessing conservation status and...     

The sticky tasty: the nutritional content of the exudativorous diet of the Javan slow loris in a lowland forest

Primates - Plant exudates are an important food source for many primates. The Critically Endangered Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus) was previously found to prefer Acacia decurrens exudate...     

The interrelationships between the African and South American Rodents and their bearing on the problem of the origin of South American monkeys

The first presence of Primates in South American Oligocene, at the same time as the Rodents, suggests a similar history. The anatomical similarities between African (Phiomorpha) and South American (Caviomorpha) rodents cannot satisfactorily be explained without direct relationships. As a consequence of continental drift, the migration by rafts, if not easy, was certainly possible in early Tertiary. The same is true for Primates.     

Pattern and pace of morphological change due to variable human impact: the case of Japanese macaques

Primates - Human impact influences morphological variation in animals, as documented in many captive and domestic animal populations. However, there are different levels of human impact, and their...     

Postural relevance of Sergi's temporal tetrahedron in Primates

The variations of the position of the barycentre of the “temporal tetrahedron” of Sergi are studied in a series of Primates and fossil Hominid skull casts.     

Potential drivers of samango monkey (Cercopithecus albogularis) population subdivision in a highly fragmented mountain landscape in northern South Africa

Primates - Forests affected by fragmentation are at risk of losing their primate populations over the long term. The impact of fragmentation on primate populations has been studied in several...     

Classifying Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) Landscapes Across Large-Scale Environmental Gradients in Africa

International Journal of Primatology - Primates are sometimes categorized in terms of their habitat. Although such categorization can be oversimplistic, there are scientific benefits from the...     

Parallel lasers and digital photography to estimate limb size of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) at Ngogo,Kibale National Park,Uganda

Primates - How animals grow and when they stop growing are key variables for understanding life history evolution. Although theoretically straightforward, it is logistically difficult to take body...     

On the origins of body size dimorphism in primates

Among many explanations concerning the origins of dimorphism in Primates, none has received as little attention as the differences in energy requirements of the two sexes. It is hypothesised that among Primates, a common strategy for overcoming the extra metabolic load of pregnency and lactation experienced by females during the greater part of their adult lifetimes, is for them to reduce their bodyweights relative to those of males. Such a strategy allows the mother plus infant combination to weight approximately as much as the species target weight or slightly less, preserving the balance between the species and the environment. Once such body weight dimorphysm had evolved, they might secondarily lead to modifications in behaviour in the species. For example, the now relatively larger males might take on the role of troop protection as a result of their larger size. Such secondarily acquired social and behavioural roles would be expected to show a reasonably strong correlation with the existence of sexual size dimorphism in Primates, even though they may not have been the cause of the dimorphism, but only the result of it. It is evident however, that many dimorphic features in Primates, such as pelage differences, and differential canine size, have been the subject of different selection processes from those which led to the acquisition of differential body size.     

Reproductive seasonality in wild northern pig-tailed macaques (Macaca leonina)

Primates - Macaque reproductive patterns range from strictly seasonal breeding to non-seasonal breeding, but factors explaining this variation are not fully understood. Valid reproductive...     

The inverse relationship between species diversity and body mass: do primates play by the "rules"?

Evolutionary biologists have long commented on a seemingly universal "rule" of nature-that in large taxonomic assemblages from groups as diverse as bacteria, plants, insects, marine invertebrates, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, there exists a frequency distribution of body sizes among species that is highly skewed to the right (positive skewness). This distribution reflects the strong inverse, or negative, relationship often noted between mean body size of taxa and the number of species they contain--i.e., the observation that small body size is often associated with high species diversity (speciosity). This is sometimes "explained" by recourse to the idea that smaller-bodied taxa are able to subdivide their environments more finely than larger-bodied taxa. With but few exceptions, the applicability of this "rule" to the Order Primates has not been studied in any detail. In this study I address the following questions of (paleo)anthropological interest: (1) How speciose is the Order Primates? (2) Does this biological "rule" characterize the Order Primates (at any taxonomic level) in any meaningful way? (3) Does the association between speciosity and body mass within the Order Primates provide any useful models for interpreting and/or predicting speciosity in the fossil primate record? Using phylogenetically independent contrasts methods, I conclude that the answers to those three questions are: (1) not very; (2) no; and (3) not particularly (with the possible exception of larger-bodied taxa).     

Male care in a free-ranging group of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata)

Primates - Among the Macaca species, adult male Japanese macaques are the least likely to perform male care (i.e., affiliative interactions between adult males and immatures, including holding,...