Page 128 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

128 ATLAS OF THE WORLD’S STRANGEST ANIMALS

Usually, primates have flat nails rather than claws, which
Emperor tamarin habitats
allows for the development of sensitive fingertips.They
also tend to have opposable thumbs, which can be moved
to ‘oppose’ each finger in turn, helping them to
manipulate objects.
Monkeys and apes share many of these features.The
most obvious difference between the two is that monkeys,
like tamarins, have tails and apes don’t.Apes also tend to
have bodies that can be held upright, with long arms and
flexible shoulder blades that let them brachiate (swing
from branch to branch). Monkeys usually move about on
all fours, using their tails for added grip and balance.
Tamarins, though, are peculiar primates.They don’t have
opposable thumbs or nails.Their long feet are adapted for
running along branches, and so for added grip they have
claws on their fingers and toes – apart from the toilet claw,
which is used for personal grooming. Because they’re
monkeys, and not apes, they do have tails, but these aren’t
prehensile (gripping). Instead, they’re used like rudders, to
steady the tamarins as they run from branch to branch.
What’s the difference between a monkey and an ape? Once again, this is quite strange because most New World
Monkeys and apes are both members of the scientific monkeys have prehensile tails. (Old World species from
order Primates.Apes, galagos, lemurs, lorisids, monkeys, Africa and Asia generally don’t.)
tarsiers and great apes, including humans, are all primates.
Although physical characteristics vary greatly between the Flexible feeders
species, most primates share several well-known traits. First Emperor tamarins may not have sensitive hands or
is their intelligence. Primates tend to have a domed skull, prehensile tails, but these moustachioed monkeys have
which protects a large and complex brain. Secondly, they adapted well to life in the Amazon Basin.
have five digits on their hands and feet (a pentadactyly Tamarin troops live in extended family groups,
design).These hands are highly mobile and dextrous. dominated by one breeding female, her mate, other males

Comparisons

A wild array of manes and moustaches make tamarins look like modest when compared to the sideburns and striped headwear of
extravagantly dressed dandies.The emperor tamarin was named after Geoffroy’s tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi),or the wild, rock-star haircut of
a nineteenth-century German emperor who sported similarly the cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus).
stupendous face decoration. However, the emperors’ moustaches look

Emperor tamarin Geoffroy’s tamarin Cotton-top tamarin

(c) 2011 Marshall Cavendish. All Rights Reserved.