Ecological differentiation in the Callitrichidae

Abstract

Abstract The most obvious and absolute difference between callitrichids and all other anthropoid primates is their small size, a characteristic which, along with other diagnostic features of their biology, is intimately related to an evolutionary process of specialization for the efficient colonization of marginal and disturbed forest habitats (Eisenberg 1978; Garber 1980b; Sussman and Kinzey 1984). All four callitrichid genera also share a range of morphological, physiological, ecological, and behavioural characteristics, many of which are discussed at length in other chapters of this book. The family is less homogeneous than it might seem, however, depending on the parameters chosen and how they are evaluated (Ferrari and Lopes Ferrari 1989). While all callitrichids are small, for example, they are not equally so. Body size, which plays a fundamental role in a primate’s ecology (Milton and May 1976; Clutton-Brock and Harvey 1977a), increases approximately six fold between the smallest (Cebuella pygmaea) and the largest (Leontopithecus chrysopygus) callitrichid species. This is consistent with body size variation within the Cebidae, if the number of genera is taken into account. The present overview of the data on callitrichid ecology reveals that such differences have probably played a fundamentally important role in the evolutionary history of a highly successful primate radiation.