Pygmy marmosets
| Pygmy marmosets | ||||||||||||
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Pygmy marmoset ( Cebuella pygmaea ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Cebuella | ||||||||||||
| JE Gray , 1866 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Cebuella pygmaea | ||||||||||||
| ( Spix , 1823) |
The pygmy marmoset ( Cebuella pygmaea , Syn . : Callithrix pygmaea ) is a species of primate from the marmoset family . It is the smallest representative of the real monkeys and lives in western South America . It lives in groups and feeds primarily on tree sap.
description
Pygmy marmosets reach a head body length of 12 to 15 centimeters, the tail is much longer with 17 to 23 centimeters. Their weight is 85 to 140 grams. This makes them the smallest monkeys - but not the smallest primates, since the mouse lemurs , for example, are smaller.
Their fur is bushy on the head in particular and falls backwards, it is dark brown or gray-brown in color on the head and neck, the back is gray and often has black or greenish spots. The belly is yellowish-brown or whitish, depending on the subspecies, the paws are yellow-orange. The long, bushy tail is ringed black-gray. There are two white spots on the upper lip, and there is also a white stripe on the nose. As with all marmosets, the fingers and toes (with the exception of the big toe) have claws instead of nails.
distribution and habitat
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Pygmy marmosets live in the western Amazon basin between Rio Japurá in the north and Rio Madeira in the east and south. The distribution area includes parts of western Brazil , southern Colombia , eastern Ecuador , eastern Peru and northern Bolivia . Their habitat are tropical rainforests , especially lowland rainforests that are temporarily flooded, but also terra firme forests, bamboo stands, lianas and secondary forests. Pygmy marmosets often share their habitat with different species of tamarins . Where they occur together, the tamarins are generally more numerous in the Terra Firme forests, which are not flooded in the rainy season, while they are less common in the river forests preferred by the pygmy marmosets.
Way of life
Pygmy marmosets are diurnal tree dwellers, they are most active in the morning and late afternoon. Thick plants and, more rarely, tree hollows serve as sleeping places. They move on horizontal branches on all fours, but they can jump well and, thanks to their claws, also climb up or down tree trunks.
They live together in groups of two to nine animals. Groups are made up of one or two males, one or two females and the young. If there are several females, one of them gains dominance over the group and is also the only one to reproduce. Mutual grooming plays an important role in group interaction.
Groups inhabit very small areas of 0.3 to 0.5 hectares in size. These areas are often located around a larger tree suitable for sap extraction. If the production of this tree declines, the group looks for a new territory, usually near the old one. The territories of neighboring groups do not overlap, and there is very little interaction between the groups.
food
The diet of the pygmy marmosets consists mainly of tree sap (60 to 80%) and small animals (12–16%). Like all marmosets , thanks to the specialized teeth in the lower jaw, they are able to gnaw holes in the tree bark in order to get to the food source. On small animals, they eat jumpers , beetles , butterflies , ants and spiders . To a lesser extent, they also consume fruits, buds and other parts of plants, and occasionally small vertebrates.
Reproduction
As a rule, only the dominant female reproduces, the others help raise the young. If there are several reproductive males, one of them takes the lead and prevents all others from mating with the dominant female.
After a gestation period of around 140 days, the offspring are born, as with all marmosets, dizygoti twins predominate. The father and the other group members participate intensively in raising the young, they carry the young, play with them and only give them to the mother to suckle. After around three months, the young are weaned. Sexual maturity occurs in the second year of life, but due to the social structure most animals do not reproduce for the first time until later. Life expectancy is around 12 years.
threat
Due to their high rate of reproduction and their relatively undemanding nature in terms of habitat, pygmy marmosets are not threatened. The main danger is hunting, as they are often made into pets . The IUCN lists the species as not endangered ( least concern ).
Systematics
Systematically, the pygmy marmoset is the only representative of the genus Cebuella (as Cebuella pygmaea ). The rank of a separate genus is mainly based on the significantly smaller dimensions and differences in the structure of the penis . In older publications it was placed in the genus Callithrix (as Callithrix pygmaea ). The pygmy marmoset is the sister genus of the marmoset ( Mico ). The Rio Madeira , a right tributary of the Amazon, separates the distribution area of the pygmy marmosets from that of the marmosets.
Two subspecies are distinguished within the pygmy marmosets : Cebuella pygmaea pygmaea is characterized by a yellowish-light brown belly which is not sharply delimited from the olive-brown piebald back. The subspecies lives north of the Amazon and south of the Rio Japurá . C. p. niveiventris has a white belly, which is clearly demarcated from the rest of the body by its color, and white insides of arms and legs that become increasingly yellow towards the hands and feet. The monkey occurs between the Amazon, Rio Madeira and the eastern foothills of the Andes. The division into two clearly different clades is confirmed by molecular biological studies. The divergence is significantly smaller in both clades than between the two clades. The two subspecies are said to have separated from each other at the transition from the Pliocene to the Pleistocene around 2.5 million years ago. This means that the divergence time of the two subspecies of the pygmy marmosets is longer than that between the two-colored tamarin ( Saguinus bicolor ) and its sister species, the Martin tamarin ( Saguinus martinsi ). The two subspecies of the pygmy marmosets could therefore also be classified as separate species. In addition to the two recognized subspecies, there is a pygmy marmoset form in the upper catchment area of the Rio Juruá in the Brazilian state of Acre , which has a darker coat color. It has not yet been clarified whether this is a further subspecies.
literature
- Thomas Geissmann : Comparative Primatology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin et al. 2003, ISBN 3-540-43645-6 .
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
- Michael Schröpel: marmosets. Forest dwarfs from South America. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2007 ISBN 978-3-8334-7213-8 .
- Don E. Wilson, DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b A. B. Rylands & RA Mittermeier: Family Callitrichidae (Marmosets and Tamarins). Pages 307-308 in Russell A. Mittermeier , Anthony B. Rylands & Don E. Wilson : Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Primates: 3rd (2013) ISBN 978-84-96553-89-7
- ^ IUCN entry
- ↑ Jean P. Boubli, Maria NF da Silva, Anthony B. Rylands, Stephen D. Nash , Fabrício Bertuold, Mário Nunes, Russell A. Mittermeier, Hazel Byrne, Felipe E. da Silva, Fábio Röhe: How many Pygmy Marmoset ( Cebuella Gray, 1870) species are there? A taxonomic re-appraisal based on new molecular evidence. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, November 2017, doi: 10.1016 / j.ympev.2017.11.010
