Tamarin and marmoset mating systems: Unusual flexibility

Tamarin and marmoset mating systems: Unusual flexibility.

Recent studies of wild tamarins and marmosets have shown that at least one species exhibits variable mating patterns, including cooperative polyandry, monogamy and, more rarely, polygyny. Polyandry is thought to occur because the high frequency of twinning and the relatively high weights of infants in these species make the rearing of infants unusually difficult. Nonreproductive helpers (older ...

Pregnancy weight gain: marmoset and tamarin dads show it too.

Paternal behaviour is critical for the survival of offspring in many monogamous species. Common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) and cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) fathers spend as much or more time caring for infants than mothers. Expectant males of both species showed significant increases in weight across the pregnancy whereas control males did not (five consecutive months for marmoset m...

Sleep quantitation in common marmoset, cotton top tamarin and squirrel monkey by non-invasive actigraphy.

Sleep quantitation data on the Neotropical primate species, apart from the squirrel monkey, are still sparse. As such, we have quantitated sleep in the common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), cotton top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) and squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) reared in one primate facility simultaneously, by non-invasive actigraphy. The range in total sleep time/24h measured for male ...

Strategic Flexibility in Mating Intelligence

Constraints and flexibility during vocal development: insights from marmoset monkeys

Human vocal development is typically conceived as a sequence of two processes — an early maturation phase where vocal sounds change as a function of body growth (‘constraints’) followed by a period during which social experience can influence vocal sound production (‘flexibility’). However, studies of other behaviors (e.g., locomotion) reveal that growth and experience are interactive throughou...