Publisher : Biodiversity Journal
Place of publication :
Publication year : 2016
Thematic : Species
Language : English
Note
Here we present a theory on the origin of allopatric primate species that follows - at least in
Neotropical primates - the irreversible trend to albinotic skin and coat color, called “metachromic
bleachingâ€. It explains why primates constitute such an exceptionally diverse,
species-rich, and colorful Order in the Class Mammalia. The theory is in tune with the
principle of evolutionary change in tegumentary colors called “metachromismâ€, a hypothesis
propounded by the late Philip Hershkovitz. Metachromism holds the evolutionary change in
hair, skin, and eye melanins following an orderly and irreversible sequence that ends in loss
of pigment becoming albinotic, cream to silvery or white. In about all extant sociable Neotropical
monkeys we identified an irreversible trend according to which metachromic varieties
depart from the saturated eumelanin (agouti, black or blackish brown) archetypic form and
then speciate into allopatric taxa following the trend to albinotic skin and coat color. Speciation
goes either along the eumelanin pathway (from gray to silvery to cream to white), or
the pheomelanin pathway (from red to orange to yellow to white), or a combination of the
two. The theory represents a new and original evolutionary concept that seems to act indefinitely
in a non-adaptive way in the population dynamics of male-hierarchic societies of all
sociable primates that defend a common territory. We have successfully tested the theory in
all 19 extant Neotropical monkey genera. Our theory suggests the trend to allopatry among
metachromic varieties in a social group or population to be the principal behavioral factor
that empowers metachromic processes in sociable Neotropical monkeys. It may well represent
the principal mechanism behind speciation, radiation, niche separation, and phylogeography
in all sociable primates that hold male-defended territories. We urge field biologists who study
primate distributions, demography and phylogeography in the Old World to take our theory
to the test in the equally colorful Catarrhini.
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Keywords : marine-protected-areas
Encoded by : Pauline Carmel Joy Eje
