Marmoset

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iMarmosets
Common Marmoset(Callithrix (Callithrix) jacchus)
Common Marmoset
(Callithrix (Callithrix) jacchus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Cebidae
Subfamily: Callitrichinae
Genus: Callithrix
Erxleben, 1777
Type Species
Simia jacchus
Linnaeus, 1758
Species

18 species, see text

The marmosets are the genus Callithrix of New World monkeys. One species not classified in this genus also has common names including the word "marmoset", the Goeldi's Marmoset (Callimico goeldii). This article deals only with the 18 species currently classified in Callithrix.

Most marmosets are about 20 cm in length. Relative to other monkeys, they show a number of 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, showing as much as 4 Celsius degrees (7 Fahrenheit degrees) change in a day.

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 enable them to chew holes in the trunks or branches of trees so as to harvest the gum inside; some species are specialised feeders on gum.

Marmosets live in small family groups (3-15 individuals)consisting of one to two breeding females, an unrelated male, their offspring and occasionally extended family members and unrelated individuals. Marmoset mating systems are highly variable and can include monogamy, polygyny and occassionally polyandry. In most species, twins are usually born, though triplets are not unknown. Marmosets, like other callitrichines are characterized by a high degree of cooperative care of young, where adult males, females other than the mother, and older offspring participate in carrying infants and some degree of food sharing/tolerated theft. Most groups will scent mark and defend the edges of their ranges, but it is unclear if they are truly territorial as group home ranges greatly overlap.

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).

[edit] Species list

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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