Marmoset

Marmoset
Marmosets[1][2]
Common Marmoset
(Callithrix jacchus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Callitrichidae
in part

Marmosets (pronounced /ˈmɑrmɵsɛt/) are the 22 New World monkey species of the genera Callithrix, Cebuella, Callibella, and Mico. All four genera are part of the biological family Callitrichidae. The term marmoset is also used in reference to the Goeldi's Monkey, Callimico goeldii, which is closely related.

Most marmosets are about 20 centimetres (8 in) long. Relative to other monkeys, they show some apparently primitive features: they have claws rather than nails, and tactile hairs on their wrists. They lack wisdom teeth, and their brain layout seems to be relatively primitive. Their body temperature is unusually variable, changing by up to 4 °C (7 °F) in a day.[3] Marmosets are native to South America and have been found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru. [4]

According to recent research, marmosets exhibit germline chimerism, which is not known to occur in nature in any other primate.[5]

Contents

Behavior

Ecological

Marmosets are highly active, living in the upper canopy of forest trees, and feeding on insects, fruit and leaves. They have long lower incisors, which allow them to chew holes in tree trunks and branches to harvest the gum inside; some species are specialised feeders on gum.

Social

Marmosets live in family groups of three to 15, consisting of one to two breeding females, an unrelated male, their offspring and occasionally extended family members and unrelated individuals. Their mating systems are highly variable and can include monogamy, polygyny and occasionally polyandry. In most species, fraternal twins are usually born, but triplets are not unknown. Like other callitrichines, marmosets are characterized by a high degree of cooperative care of the young and some food sharing and tolerated theft. Adult males, females other than the mother, and older offspring participate in carrying infants. Most groups scent mark and defend the edges of their ranges, but it is unclear if they are truly territorial, as group home ranges greatly overlap.

Human cultural references

Callithrix comes from Ancient Greek and means "beautiful fur". Marmoset is from the French marmouset, uncertain etymology.

The monkey is mentioned in Shakespeare's Tempest, when Caliban says he will instruct his new master Stephano "how to snare the nimble marmoset" [for eating], on the no-man island where the play takes place (Act 2, Scene 2).

In I, Claudius, the fictional autobiography of Roman emperor Claudius by British novelist Robert Graves, Herod Agrippa repeatedly refers to Claudius by the pet name "marmoset". As marmosets would not have been found in Rome in the first century AD, the word appears to refer instead to (Asiatic) monkeys in general.

The marmoset is referenced in the eleventh book of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, in which having a personal philosophy is compared with owning a pet marmoset: "It may be very attractive when you acquire it, but there may be situations when it will not come in handy at all".

The marmoset is mentioned in "Disco Didn't Die. It Was Murdered!", the fifth episode of the third season of USA Network television show Psych. Head Detective Lassiter and his partner Juliet O'Hara uncover a crate of illegally smuggled exotic animals—namely Marmosets—mistaking it for a crate used by a Russian diamond smuggling syndicate. Quote, "And it was filled with wild marmosets, I hate marmosets, apparently they don't like being shot at". They then go onto to describe the "hundreds of razor sharp claws, and teeth..." Lassiter then says, "Lower primate my ass, I recognize a military formation when I see one".

In the Futurama episode "The Honking", Bender's Were-car honk is initially mistaken for a golden marmoset by a pair of crooks.

In the Fu Manchu book series, Dr. Fu Manchu keeps a pet marmoset.

The movie Rio has marmosets that act as the secondary antagonists of the film.

The popular iPhone, iPad, and Android (operating system) application, Angry Birds Rio, features marmosets as the "villain" in the jungle scenes.[6]

Season 1, episode 4 of The Wild Thornberrys features marmosets.

Species list

References

  1. ^ Groves, C. (2005). Wilson, D. E., & Reeder, D. M, eds. ed. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 129–133. OCLC 62265494. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3. 
  2. ^ Rylands AB and Mittermeier RA (2009). "The Diversity of the New World Primates (Platyrrhini)". In Garber PA, Estrada A, Bicca-Marques JC, Heymann EW, Strier KB. South American Primates: Comparative Perspectives in the Study of Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation. Springer. pp. 23–54. ISBN 978-0-387-78704-6. 
  3. ^ Stafford, S.G. (1999). "Thermoregulatory and Endocrine Adaptations of Small Body Size in Primates". Kent State University Dissertation, QP 135.S73, 1999.
  4. ^ [Primate Info Net, Callithrix Factsheet, University of Wisconsin, Madison.]
  5. ^ Ross, C.N., French, J.A., and Ortí, G. (2007). "Germ-line chimerism and paternal care in marmosets (Callithrix kuhlii)". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104 (15): 6278. doi:10.1073/pnas.0607426104. PMC 1851065. PMID 17389380. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1851065. 
  6. ^ Angry Birds Rio

External links



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Look at other dictionaries:

  • marmoset — small monkey, late 14c., from O.Fr. marmoset grotesque figurine; fool, jester (late 13c.), perhaps a variant of marmote long tailed monkey, ape, then, as a term of endearment, little child; said to be from marmonner, marmotter to mutter, mumble,… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Marmoset — Mar mo*set (m[aum]r m[ o]*z[e^]t ; 277), n. [F. marmouset a grotesque figure, an ugly little boy, prob. fr. LL. marmoretum, fr. L. marmor marble. Perhaps confused with marmot. See {Marble}.] (Zo[ o]l.) Any one of numerous species of small South… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Marmoset — Marmoset, s. Seidenaffe …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Marmoset — Marmoset, s. Uistiti …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • marmoset — ► NOUN ▪ a small tropical American monkey with a silky coat and a long tail. ORIGIN Old French marmouset grotesque image …   English terms dictionary

  • marmoset — [mär′mə zet΄, mär′məset΄] n. [ME < OFr marmouset, grotesque figure < ?: form prob. infl. by marmouser, to mumble, grumble, of echoic orig.] any of a family (Callithricidae) of very small New World monkeys of South and Central America, with… …   English World dictionary

  • marmoset — /mahr meuh zet , set /, n. any of several small, squirrellike, South and Central American monkeys of the genera Callithrix, Leontocebus, etc., having soft fur and a long, nonprehensile tail: some species are endangered. [1350 1400; ME marmusette… …   Universalium

  • Marmoset — Mar|mo|set der; s, s <aus gleichbed. engl. marmoset, dies über mittelengl. marmusette, marmozette aus mittelfr. marmouset, marmoset »wunderliche, seltsame Figur«> ein Krallenaffe im tropischen Amerika …   Das große Fremdwörterbuch

  • marmoset — UK [ˈmɑː(r)məzet] / US [ˈmɑrməˌset] noun [countable] Word forms marmoset : singular marmoset plural marmosets a type of small South American monkey …   English dictionary

  • marmoset — noun Etymology: Middle English marmusette kind of monkey, from Middle French marmoset grotesque figure, from marmouser to mumble, of imitative origin Date: 1679 any of numerous small soft furred South and Central American monkeys (family… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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