Wied's marmoset (''Callithrix kuhlii''), also known as Wied's black-tufted-ear marmoset, is a

New World monkey New World monkeys are the five families of primates that are found in the tropical regions of Mexico, Central and South America: Callitrichidae, Cebidae, Aotidae, Pitheciidae, and Atelidae. The five families are ranked together as the Ceboidea ( ...

that lives in tropical and subtropical forests of eastern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Unlike other

marmoset The marmosets (), also known as zaris or sagoin, are 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 ...

s, Wied's marmoset lives in groups consisting of 4 or 5 females and 2 or 3 males (plus children). They are

matriarchal Matriarchy is a social system in which women hold the primary power positions in roles of authority. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege and control of property. While those definitions apply in general E ...

, and only the dominant female is allowed to mate. Like other marmosets, the offspring are always born in pairs.

Diet

This

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

supplements its diet of sap with fruit, nectar, flowers and seeds, as well as spiders and insects. Since these are harvested from the middle and lower part of the forest, Wied's marmoset often travels and forages in the company of the

golden-headed lion tamarin The golden-headed lion tamarin (''Leontopithecus chrysomelas''), also the golden-headed tamarin, is a lion tamarin endemic to Brazil. It is found only in the lowland and premontane tropical forest fragments in the state of Bahia, and therefore i ...

, which forages in the canopy.

Natural Predators

Wied's marmoset is eaten by

birds of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predators ...

(the

harpy eagle The harpy eagle (''Harpia harpyja'') is a neotropical species of eagle. It is also called the American harpy eagle to distinguish it from the Papuan eagle, which is sometimes known as the New Guinea harpy eagle or Papuan harpy eagle. It is the ...

, the

gray hawk The gray hawk (''Buteo plagiatus'') or Mexican goshawk is a smallish Bird of prey, raptor found in open country and forest edges. It is sometimes placed in the genus ''Asturina'' as ''Asturina plagiata''. The species was split by the American Orn ...

, the

roadside hawk The roadside hawk (''Rupornis magnirostris'') is a relatively small bird of prey found in the Americas. This vocal species is often the most common raptor in its range. It has many subspecies and is now usually placed in the monotypic genus ''Ru ...

and the

white-tailed hawk The white-tailed hawk (''Geranoaetus albicaudatus'') is a large bird of prey species found in tropical and subtropical environments of the Americas. Description The white-tailed hawk is a large, stocky hawk. It is close in size to the Swainso ...

), felines (the

jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

jaguarundi The jaguarundi (''Herpailurus yagouaroundi'') is a wild cat native to the Americas. Its range extends from central Argentina in the south to northern Mexico, through Central and South America east of the Andes. The jaguarundi is a medium-sized ...

and

ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Two subspecies are recognized. It is native to the southwes ...

) and

snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

Behavior

Wied's marmoset is highly social, spending much of its time grooming. It has individually distinctive calls, and it communicates through gestures and olfactory markings as well.

Appearance

The coloring of Wied's marmoset is mostly black, with white markings on cheeks and forehead. It has rings on its tail and black tufts of fur coming out of its ears.

Chimerism

Chimeric individuals carry two or more genetic cell lines in their bodies, each of which stems from a separate and genetically distinct

zygote A zygote (, ) is a eukaryotic cell formed by a fertilization event between two gametes. The zygote's genome is a combination of the DNA in each gamete, and contains all of the genetic information of a new individual organism. In multicellula ...

. This chimerism is the result of cell lines exchanged between siblings

in utero ''In Utero'' is the third and final studio album by American rock band Nirvana. It was released on September 21, 1993, by DGC Records. After breaking into the mainstream with their second album, ''Nevermind'' (1991), Nirvana hired Steve Albini t ...

. These two original zygotes were fertilized by two different sperm, which potentially came from more than one male. Therefore, chimeric individuals exhibit a

phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...

that is the result of more than one

genotype The genotype of an organism is its complete set of genetic material. Genotype can also be used to refer to the alleles or variants an individual carries in a particular gene or genetic location. The number of alleles an individual can have in a ...

, and potentially more than one father. Researchers first discovered chimerism in the bone marrow of marmosets in the 1960s. More recent work has shown that chimerism can occur in all cell lines, including

germ cell Germ or germs may refer to: Science * Germ (microorganism), an informal word for a pathogen * Germ cell, cell that gives rise to the gametes of an organism that reproduces sexually * Germ layer, a primary layer of cells that forms during embry ...

s. This allows for the possibility of horizontal inheritance. In other words, individuals could pass on the genotype that is different from their majority (or self) genotype. Consider a father marmoset was chimeric in his germ line. This father could potentially pass on his secondary cell line (the majority or self cell line of his brother) to his offspring. In this way, this father's offspring would be more genetically similar to their uncle than to their father. Since chimerism changes the degrees of relatedness between individuals, it also changes the adaptive value of certain behaviors, like cooperatively raising young. It has been proposed that chimerism creates a system that makes it evolutionarily advantageous for an individual to cooperate to raise its siblings; this closely matches to the way marmoset social systems have been observed to function in the wild.

References

External links

Animal Diversity Web: Callithrix kuhlii
{{Taxonbar, from=Q588728

Wied's marmoset Wied's marmoset (''Callithrix kuhlii''), also known as Wied's black-tufted-ear marmoset, is a New World monkey that lives in tropical and subtropical forests of eastern Brazil. Unlike other marmosets, Wied's marmoset lives in groups consisting o ...

Mammals of Brazil Endemic fauna of Brazil