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Primate

About: Primate is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1250 publications have been published within this topic receiving 67388 citations. The topic is also known as: the primate order & primates.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that statistically significant but low levels of head circumference sexual dimorphism are present in humans, rhesus monkeys, and baboons in early life, and it is suggested that brainDimorphism is not likely to impose an additional energetic burden to the gestating or lactating mother.
Abstract: Studies have shown that after controlling for the effects of body size on brain size, the brains of adult humans, rhesus monkeys, and chimpanzees differ in relative size, where males have a greater volume of cerebral tissue than females. We assess whether head circumference sexual dimorphism is present during early development by evaluating sex differences in relative head circumference in living fetuses and infants within the first year of life. Head circumference is used as a proxy for brain size in the fetus and infant. Femur length is used as a proxy for body length in the fetus. Ultrasonography was used to obtain fetal measures, and anthropometry was used to obtain postnatal measures in humans, rhesus monkeys, baboons, and common marmosets. We show that statistically significant but low levels of head circumference sexual dimorphism are present in humans, rhesus monkeys, and baboons in early life. On average, males have head circumferences about 2% larger than females of comparable femur/body length in humans, rhesus monkeys, and baboons. No evidence for head circumference sexual dimorphism in the common marmoset was found. Dimorphism was present across all body size ranges. We suggest that head circumference sexual dimorphism emerges largely postnatally and increases throughout maturation, particularly in humans who reach adult dimorphism values greater than the monkeys. We suggest that brain dimorphism is not likely to impose an additional energetic burden to the gestating or lactating mother. Finally, some of the problems with ascribing functional significance to brain size sexual dimorphism are discussed, and the energetic implications for brain size sexual dimorphism in infancy are assessed.

27 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Laventiana annectens is closely related to Saimiri and to Cebus yet resembles the probable callitrichine morphotype, demonstrating that archaic relatives of a Saimiris-like stock were suitable structural ancestors for the enigmatic callitRichines.
Abstract: A previously unidentified middle Miocene primate from the La Venta deposits of Colombia is intermediate between squirrel monkeys (Saimiri) and callitrichines (marmosets and tamarins) in the morphology of the lower molars, mandible, and talus. Laventiana annectens is closely related to Saimiri and to Cebus (capuchin monkeys) yet resembles the probable callitrichine morphotype, demonstrating that archaic relatives of a Saimiri-like stock were suitable structural ancestors for the enigmatic callitrichines. Laventiana is also more primitive than Saimiri (= Neosaimiri) fieldsi from the same fauna, further increasing the likelihood that the latter is a lineal ancestor of modern squirrel monkeys.

27 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The results showed that both primate species to have a well-developed olfactory sensitivity for aliphatic aldehydes, and pigtail macaques to generally perform better than squirrel monkeys in detecting members of this class of odorants, suggesting that olfaction may play an important and hitherto underestimated role in the regulation of behavior in the species tested.
Abstract: Using a conditioning paradigm, the olfactory sensitivity of three squirrel monkeys and three pigtail macaques for a homologous series of aliphatic aldehydes (n-butanal to n-nonanal) was assessed. With only few exceptions, the animals of both species significantly discriminated concentrations below 1 ppm from the odorless solvent, and with n-butanal and n-hexanal individual pigtail macaques even demonstrated thresholds below 1 ppb. The results showed (1) both primate species to have a well-developed olfactory sensitivity for aliphatic aldehydes, (2) pigtail macaques to generally perform better than squirrel monkeys in detecting members of this class of odorants, and (3) no significant correlation between perceptibility in terms of olfactory detection thresholds and carbon chain length of the aliphatic aldehydes in both species tested. These findings lend further support to the growing body of evidence suggesting that between-species comparisons of the number of functional olfactory receptor genes or of neuroanatomical features are poor predictors of olfactory performance. Further, our findings suggest that olfaction may play an important and hitherto underestimated role in the regulation of behavior in the species tested.

26 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that social stimulation provided by a single novel female is sufficient to enhance breeding readiness in male squirrel monkeys, and females, on the other hand, are apparently unresponsive to a single male whether novel or familiar; this may account for the poor reproductive success in squirrel monkeys housed in heterosexual pairs.

26 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Two new viruses in African green monkeys from Zambia and South Africa are discovered and analysis suggests that one of these virus types, the simian arteriviruses, may have the potential to jump between different primate species and cause disease.
Abstract: Nonhuman primates (NHPs) are a historically important source of zoonotic viruses and are a gold-standard model for research on many human pathogens. However, with the exception of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) (family Retroviridae), the blood-borne viruses harbored by these animals in the wild remain incompletely characterized. Here, we report the discovery and characterization of two novel simian pegiviruses (family Flaviviridae) and two novel simian arteriviruses (family Arteriviridae) in wild African green monkeys from Zambia (malbroucks [Chlorocebus cynosuros]) and South Africa (vervet monkeys [Chlorocebus pygerythrus]). We examine several aspects of infection, including viral load, genetic diversity, evolution, and geographic distribution, as well as host factors such as age, sex, and plasma cytokines. In combination with previous efforts to characterize blood-borne RNA viruses in wild primates across sub-Saharan Africa, these discoveries demonstrate that in addition to SIV, simian pegiviruses and simian arteriviruses are widespread and prevalent among many African cercopithecoid (i.e., Old World) monkeys. IMPORTANCE Primates are an important source of viruses that infect humans and serve as an important laboratory model of human virus infection. Here, we discover two new viruses in African green monkeys from Zambia and South Africa. In combination with previous virus discovery efforts, this finding suggests that these virus types are widespread among African monkeys. Our analysis suggests that one of these virus types, the simian arteriviruses, may have the potential to jump between different primate species and cause disease. In contrast, the other virus type, the pegiviruses, are thought to reduce the disease caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in humans. However, we did not observe a similar protective effect in SIV-infected African monkeys coinfected with pegiviruses, possibly because SIV causes little to no disease in these hosts.

26 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023296
2022585
202133
202033
201930
201842