Effect of binocular visual cue availability on fruit and insect grasping performance in two cheirogaleids: Implications for primate origins hypotheses.

Autor: Kemp AD; Department of Integrative Anatomical Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, 403 Bishop Memorial Teaching Building, 133 San Pablo St, Los Angeles, CA, 90033-9112, USA. Electronic address: addisonk@usc.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Journal of human evolution [J Hum Evol] 2024 Mar; Vol. 188, pp. 103456. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Feb 06.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103456
Abstrakt: Forward-facing eyes with parallel optic axes, which provide a wide field of binocular vision and precise depth perception, are among the diagnostic features of crown primates; however, the adaptive significance of this feature remains contentious. Two of the most prominent primate-origins hypotheses propose that either foraging for fruit or nocturnal predation on insects created selective pressures that led to the evolution of diagnostic primate traits, including a wide binocular field. To determine whether either of these hypotheses provides a viable explanation for the evolution of primates' derived eye orientation, the importance of binocular depth cues for the two tasks invoked by these hypotheses was evaluated experimentally in Microcebus murinus and Cheirogaleus medius, cheirogaleids' considered reasonable living analogs of the earliest euprimates. Performance in grasping insects and fruit was evaluated when the animals made use of their full binocular visual field and when their binocular visual field was restricted using a helmet-mounted blinder. Restriction of the binocular field had no effect on fruit grasping performance; however, restriction of the binocular field resulted in a significant deficit in insect predation performance. Differences in behavioral variables also suggest that insect predation is a more visually demanding task than fruit foraging. These results support the role of insect predation, but not fruit foraging, in contributing to the selective pressures that led to the evolution of parallel optic axes and a wide binocular field in crown primates.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest There are no competing interests.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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