Does the primate pattern hold up? Testing the functional significance of infraorbital foramen size variation among marsupials

Abstract

Results suggest that relatively small IOF area may reflect increased reliance on the hands while feeding, and that relative IOF size can be used as an indicator of feeding behavior.

100 years of primate paleontology

“…The earliest known euprimates had relatively small Infraorbital foramina (IOF; Kay & Cartmill, ), which suggests that they depended less on ‘face touch’ (maxillary mechanoreception) than most other mammals. It has been suggested that reduced facial mechanorecption is functionally related to transferring touch discrimination from snout to fingers (Muchlinski, , ; Spriggs, Muchlinski, & Gordon, ), which would be important in visual predation when using the hands to capture prey.…”