Free-ranging primates are confronted with the challenge of maintaining an optimal range of body temperatures within a thermally dynamic environment that changes daily, seasonally, and annually. While many laboratory studies have been conducted on…
Even though in vivo studies of mastication in living primates are often used to test functional and adaptive hypotheses explaining primate masticatory behavior, we currently have little data addressing how experimental procedures performed in the…
OBJECTIVES: This study seeks to determine if (a) consumption of hard food items or a mixture of food items leads to the formation of premolar or molar microwear in laboratory capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella) in one feeding session and (b) rates of…
Dental microwear analysis has been employed in studies of a wide range of modern and fossil animals, yielding many insights into the biology/ecology of those taxa. Paleoanthropological studies have produced both expected and unexpected results (e.g.,…
OBJECTIVES: Platyrrhines span two orders of magnitude in body size and are characterized by diverse feeding behaviors and diets. While size plays an important role in primate feeding behavior and masticatory apparatus morphology, we know little about…
The jaw-closing muscles are responsible for generating many of the forces and movements associated with feeding. Muscle physiologic cross-sectional area (PCSA) and fiber length are two architectural parameters that heavily influence muscle function.…
Common (Callithrix jacchus) and pygmy (Cebuella pygmaea) marmosets and cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) share broadly similar diets of fruits, insects, and tree exudates. Marmosets, however, differ from tamarins in actively gouging trees with…
OBJECTIVES: Dental eruption schedules have been closely linked to life history variables. Here we examine a sample of 50 perinatal primates (28 species) to determine whether life history traits correlate with relative tooth size at birth. MATERIALS…
Several bony and soft tissue structures of the callitrichid masticatory apparatus have been studied to understand how gouging behavior in marmosets is facilitated by specific morphologies. While marmoset craniofacial anatomy indicates features that…
The relationship between mandibular form and biomechanical function is a topic of significant interest to morphologists and paleontologists alike. Several previous studies have examined the morphology of the mandible in gouging and nongouging…
Physical anthropologists have devoted considerable attention to the structure and function of the primate prehensile tail. Nevertheless, previous morphological studies have concentrated solely on adults, despite behavioral evidence that among many…
Uncertainties as to the nature and implications of osteoarthritis and calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease (CPPD) in primates were subject to critical review through examination of 153 prosimians and 1,250 Old World non-prosimian primates.…
Presence of spine and sacroiliac involvement and the nature and distribution of the erosive lesions allow definitive diagnosis of spondyloarthropathy. Thus, spondyloarthropathy was identified in Theropithecus, Papio, Cercopithecus, Macaca, Colobus,…
