The Behavioral Ecology of Color Vision: Considering Fruit Conspicuity, Detection Distance and Dietary Importance

Melin, Amanda D.; Hiramatsu, Chihiro; Parr, Nigel A.; Matsushita, Yuka; Kawamura, Shoji; Fedigan, Linda M.

doi:10.1007/s10764-013-9730-8

Cited by 73 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 91 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…They are patchily distributed, highly nutritious, require little processing time, and are seasonally available. Some variation in preference among fruit taxa has been documented for the site (Melin et al, 2014a) but as a category we believe it is justifiable to call fruit preferred overall. Capuchins are also known to be destructive foragers, a classification that reflects the "difficult-toaccess" aspects of their diet .…”

Section: Study Site and Speciesmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Capuchins in SSR eat the pith from seven tree species (Astronium graveolens, Cochlospermum vitifolium, Cordia alliodora, Guazuma ulmifolia, Sciadondendron excelsum, Spondias mombin, Trichilia americana) and the leaves of two species of bromeliads (Bromelia penguin, Bromelia plumieri) . To document the abundance of edible pith and bromeliad leaves, we counted the number of trees greater than 10 cm diameter at base height (DBH) and the number of bromeliad plants in a 3.02 hectare area spanning the groups' home ranges (Melin et al, 2014a). We assume no seasonal variation in these resources because bromeliads are evergreen, and pith is extracted from branches, which are present year-round.…”

Section: Measuring Food Abundancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…To calculate habitat-wide fruit abundance, we measured tree density and size using 151, 100 m 3 2 m transects in each of the capuchin home ranges, equating to a 3.02 ha area (see Melin et al, 2014a). We used DBH to estimate fruit biomass (F) in grams following Formula 4 from Peters (1988): (F) 5 47 3 DBH 1.9 .…”

Section: Measuring Food Abundancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The densities of these species are than the density of the majority of the preferred fruit species in SSR (range: < 0.33-45.66 plants/ ha; mean 5.66, n 5 39 species). Indeed, five of these species (Bromelia plumieri, Bromelia penguin, Sciadondendron excelsum, Spondias mombin, and Trichilia americana) also produce fruits that are favored by capuchins (Melin et al, 2014a). …”

Section: Arthropod Pith and Bromeliad Abundancementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Quantifying seasonal fallback on invertebrates, pith, and bromeliad leaves by white‐faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus) in a tropical dry forest

Mosdossy

Melin

Fedigan

2015

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Invertebrate foraging patterns are not uniform. Caterpillar consumption is consistent with a preferred strategy, whereas capuchins appear to fallback on invertebrates requiring high handling time. Capuchins are convergent with hominins in possessing large brains and high levels of sensorimotor intelligence, thus our research has broad implications for primate evolution, including factors shaping cognitive innovations, brain size, and the role of entomophagy in the human diet.

show abstract

Section: Study Site and Speciesmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Measuring Food Abundancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Measuring Food Abundancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Arthropod Pith and Bromeliad Abundancementioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Quantifying seasonal fallback on invertebrates, pith, and bromeliad leaves by white‐faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus) in a tropical dry forest

Mosdossy

Melin

Fedigan

2015

American J Phys Anthropol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Among environmental targets for selection, there is substantial support for a foraging advantage for trichromats for yellow/red fruit and/or young leaves compared with dichromats [13][14][15][16][17]. The high degree of folivory of howler monkeys has been suggested to account for the evolution of routine trichromacy in this lineage [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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 unprecedented number of functional alleles (six), including a novel allele with a predicted maximum spectral sensitivity of 555 nm. This supports the presence of strong balancing selection on different alleles at this locus. We consider different hypotheses to explain this selection. One possibility is that trichromacy functions in sexual selection, enabling females to choose high-quality males on the basis of red facial coloration. In support of this, there is some evidence that health affects facial coloration in uakaris, as well as a high prevalence of blood-borne parasitism in wild uakari populations. Alternatively, the low proportion of heterozygous female trichromats in the population may indicate selection on different dichromatic phenotypes, which might be related to cryptic food coloration. We have uncovered unexpected diversity in the last major lineage of NWMs to be assayed for colour vision, which will provide an interesting system to dissect adaptation of polymorphic trichromacy.

show abstract

Primate color vision, genetics of

Veilleux

2018

The International Encyclopedia of Biological Anthropology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Color vision, or the ability to discriminate between different wavelengths of light, is uniquely variable across primates compared with other Mammal Orders. Substantial research has focused on identifying the extent of variation in primate opsin genes, which control color vision ability. Although several primates retain the ancestral mammalian complement of a short‐wavelength‐sensitive ( SWS1 ) opsin gene and medium‐/long‐wavelength‐sensitive ( LWS ) opsin gene and dichromatic color vision, the Primate Order has experienced multiple episodes of gene duplication, evolution of allelic variation, and loss of gene function throughout its evolutionary history. A major area of current research is focused on using a variety of approaches to explore ecological factors influencing the evolution of primate opsin gene variation.

show abstract

The Behavioral Ecology of Color Vision: Considering Fruit Conspicuity, Detection Distance and Dietary Importance

Cited by 73 publications

References 91 publications

Quantifying seasonal fallback on invertebrates, pith, and bromeliad leaves by white‐faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus) in a tropical dry forest

Quantifying seasonal fallback on invertebrates, pith, and bromeliad leaves by white‐faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus) in a tropical dry forest

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

Primate color vision, genetics of

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About