Page 145 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

PYGMY MARMOSET 145

cryptic coloration, combined with catlike stealth and
Pygmy marmoset habitats
sudden, unexpected bursts of speed, enable them to catch
even the most alert insects unaware.

Little lions
With their strikingly grizzled fur, long manelike head
and chest hair and four-legged stance, these curious
mammals are, not surprisingly, known in their homeland
as leoncito – ‘little lions’. Despite their convincingly
leonine appearance, pygmy marmosets really are primates.
In fact, they are one of the world’s smallest primates and
the smallest species of true monkey, which is why
another nickname for them is mono de bolsillo – pocket
monkey. (The smallest primate is the pygmy mouse
lemur, Microcebus myoxinus.)
Monkeys and apes share many physical features, but
there are also notable differences between the two groups.
Monkeys have tails, but apes don’t. Monkeys tend to move
about on all fours using their tails for added grip and
balance amongst the foliage. In the trees tops, apes
brachiate (swing from branch to branch) or may clamber
about on all fours. But they can and do walk on two legs, bodies. New World monkeys are usually described as flat
holding their bodies in an upright position, which makes nosed, with nostrils to the side rather than facing forwards.
them seem more human than their monkey cousins. They also tend to have prehensile (grasping) tails although
Scientifically speaking, marmosets are classed as New marmosets, like tamarins, lack this adaptation. Instead, their
World monkeys as opposed to the Old World monkeys of tails are used like rudders to help them balance as they run
Asia and Africa. Like all New World monkeys, they differ through the tree tops. Marmosets are also unusual in that
slightly from their Asian and African relations.The two they don’t have opposable thumbs but instead rely on
most obvious differences come at either end of their sharp claws to help them to grip tree trunks.

Comparisons

Like pygmy marmosets, pied tamarins (Saquinus bicolor) are so tiny
that they can be held in your hand.While pygmy marmosets live
mainly on a diet of gum and sap, tamarins are frugivores.They mainly
eat fruit and flowers, although they are known to occasionally consume
small invertebrates.These beautiful primates get their name from their
two-tone (pied) coat of white and reddish-brown fur.

Pygmy tamarin Pied tamarin

(c) 2011 Marshall Cavendish. All Rights Reserved.