Parturition Signaling by Visual Cues in Female Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus).

ABSTRACT: New World monkeys have polymorphic color vision, in which all males and some females are dichromats, while most females are trichromats. There is little consensus about which selective pressures fashioned primate color vision, although detection of food, mates and predators has been hypothesized. Behavioral evidence shows that males from different species of Neotropical primates seem to perceive the timing of female conception and gestation, although, no signals fulfilling this function have been identified. Therefore, we used visual models to test the hypothesis that female marmosets show chromatic and/or achromatic cues that may indicate the time of parturition for male and female conspecifics. By recording the reflectance spectra of female marmosets' (Callithrix jacchus) sexual skin, an

SUBMITTER: Moreira LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4457725 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature