16 research outputs found
Influence of the Task on Hand Preference: Individual Differences among Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)
International audienc
Food Prehension and Manipulation in <i>Microcebus murinus</i> (Prosimii, Cheirogaleidae)
International audienc
Hand posture in the grey mouse lemur during arboreal locomotion on narrow branches
International audienc
Food acquisition on arboreal substrates by the grey mouse lemur: implication for primate grasping evolution
International audienc
Holding-on: co-evolution between infant carrying and grasping behaviour in strepsirrhines
The origin and evolution of manual grasping remain poorly understood. The ability to cling requires
important grasping abilities and is essential to survive in species where the young are carried in the
fur. A previous study has suggested that this behaviour could be a pre-adaptation for the evolution
of fine manipulative skills. In this study we tested the co-evolution between infant carrying in the fur
and manual grasping abilities in the context of food manipulation. As strepsirrhines vary in the way
infants are carried (mouth vs. fur), they are an excellent model to test this hypothesis. Data on food
manipulation behaviour were collected for 21 species of strepsirrhines. Our results show that furcarrying
species exhibited significantly more frequent manual grasping of food items. This study clearly
illustrates the potential novel insights that a behaviour (infant carrying) that has previously been largely
ignored in the discussion of the evolution of primate manipulation can bring.peerReviewe