Highly polymorphic colour vision in a New World monkey with red facial skin, the bald uakari (Cacajao calvus).

ABSTRACT: Colour vision is highly variable in New World monkeys (NWMs). Evidence for the adaptive basis of colour vision in this group has largely centred on environmental features such as foraging benefits for differently coloured foods or predator detection, whereas selection on colour vision for sociosexual communication is an alternative hypothesis that has received little attention. The colour vision of uakaris (Cacajao) is of particular interest because these monkeys have the most dramatic red facial skin of any primate, as well as a unique fission/fusion social system and a specialist diet of seeds. Here, we investigate colour vision in a wild population of the bald uakari,C. calvus, by genotyping the X-linked opsin locus. We document the presence of a polymorphic colour vision system with an

SUBMITTER: Corso J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4843651 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature