Amanda D Melin
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 90875 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Amanda D Melin |
| PRENOMES | Amanda D |
| SOBRENOME | Melin |
| ASSINATURA | MELIN A D |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Calgary |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0612-2514 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 37 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 62 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 37 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2009 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
MHC-DRB heterozygosity may increase subordinate but not alpha male siring success in white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator)
Responses to Scent Marks in a Wild Group of Leontocebus Weddelli
Olfaction is a key sensory modality in primate sexual communication; yet, studies examining scent marking behavior and its sex‐biased expression remain relatively rare. Furthermore, even fewer have examined the responses elicited by these markings. In this study, we investigated the response behaviors to scent marking in wild tamarins. We hypothesized that scent serves a sexual communication function to facilitate mate attraction and/or mate guar…
Sources of Variation in Fecal Haptoglobin in a Population of Wild Capuchin Monkeys ( Cebus imitator )
The ongoing decline of non‐human primates places renewed emphasis on monitoring health in wild populations. Non‐invasive monitoring of reliable biomarkers of inflammation and immune activation allows researchers to assess individual health status without capturing or interfering with wild animals, but studies are limited by the availability of such biomarkers that are measurable from fecal and urine samples. In the present study, we aimed to vali…
Temperature and Rainfall Associate With Patterns of Parasitism in Free‐Ranging Capuchin Monkeys ( Cebus imitator )
Ecological variables such as climate and habitat composition can impact the infection patterns of gastrointestinal parasites in animal host populations by affecting host behavior and parasite survivability and distribution in the external environment. Data from wild primate populations provide insights into these processes. To contribute new insights from a well‐characterized population, we collected 200 fecal samples from five groups of Costa Ri…
Microbial Contributions to Primate Reproduction
Reproduction is a complex process, and microbes play a far greater role than previously imagined. This review explores the ways that microbiomes influence the rich tapestry of reproductive processes and outcomes within the primate lineage, including pre‐copulatory and post‐copulatory mechanisms. We discuss microbiomes in a sexual selection framework, specifically how they might influence mate choice and sexual competition across multiple sensory …
A History of Primatology in Canada and an Introduction to the Special Issue
Primatological research by anthropologists and evolutionary biologists based in Canada has expanded greatly since its inception ca. 60 years ago. The research foci of the founding primatologists were based on the study of social behaviors to understand human behavior. While Canadian anthropologists have remained interested in how study of our nonhuman primate relatives can inform our understanding of our own species, today the currently active ge…
Picking pithy plants
Understanding diet selectivity is a longstanding goal in primate ecology. Deciphering when and why primates consume different resources can provide insights into their nutritional ecology as well as adaptations to food scarcity. Plant pith, the spongy interior of plant stems, is occasionally eaten by primates, but the context is poorly understood. We examine the ecological, mechanical, chemical, and nutritional basis of plant pith selection by a …
Monkeys Swimming Across Rivers Refine Questions About the Riverine Barrier Hypothesis
The Riverine Barrier Hypothesis posits that species distributions are limited by large rivers acting as geographical barriers. Accordingly, large rivers have long been thought to be a major driver of the extensive speciation and high levels of biodiversity among platyrrhine primates in South and Central America. Direct observations of river crossings provide evidence that complements studies of genetic diversity that can together shed new light o…
Is Primate Cone Ratio Variation Functional and Adaptive
Variation in animal perception provides excellent opportunities for studying adaptation. Unusually, primates exhibit a great deal of inter‐ and intra‐specific visual system variation. Here, we discuss what is known about the retinal cone mosaic, and the sources of variation in primate cone types and their relative expression. We focus on catarrhines (African and Asian monkeys and apes and humans), which have evolved uniform trichromacy, exhibitin…
Gastrointestinal Parasites in Wild Capuchins (Cebus imitator)
Reduction of bitter taste receptor gene family in folivorous colobine primates relative to omnivorous cercopithecine primates
Bitter taste perception is important in preventing animals from ingesting potentially toxic compounds. Whole-genome assembly (WGA) data have revealed that bitter taste receptor genes ( TAS2R s) comprise a multigene family with dozens of intact and disrupted genes in primates. However, publicly available WGA data are often incomplete, especially for multigene families. In this study, we employed a targeted capture (TC) approach specifically probin…
Smell throughout the life course
The sense of smell is an important mediator of health and sociality at all stages of life, yet it has received limited attention in our lineage. Olfaction starts in utero and participates in the establishment of social bonds in children, and of romantic and sexual relationships after puberty. Smell further plays a key role in food assessment and danger avoidance; in modern societies, it also guides our consumer behavior. Sensory abilities typical…
Evaluating genital skin color as a putative sexual signal in wild saddleback ( Leontocebus weddelli ) and emperor ( Saguinus imperator ) tamarins
Coevolution between signalers and receivers has played a significant role in the diversity of animal signals and sensory systems. Platyrrhines (monkeys in the Americas) exhibit a remarkable color vision polymorphism that may have been selected by both natural and sexual selection, but sociosexual color signaling among platyrrhines has received almost no attention. Here, we study the color of reproductive skin among different reproductive classes …
Assessing color cues of development, breeding status and reproductive condition in captive golden lion tamarins ( Leontopithecus rosalia )
Color signals play an important role in intraspecific communication and are well studied in catarrhine primates, which exhibit uniform trichromatic vision that is well suited to detecting such signals. Platyrrhine primates exhibit polymorphic color vision with different individuals possessing different color vision types in most species. Intriguingly, some platyrrhine species exhibit bare faces, which are convergent with those of catarrhines. How…
Sars‐CoV‐2 and wastewater
In most of our lifetimes, we have not faced a global pandemic such as the novel coronavirus disease 2019. The world has changed as a result. However, it is not only humans who are affected by a pandemic of this scale. Our closest relatives, the non‐human primates (NHPs) who encounter researchers, sanctuary/zoo employees, and tourists, are also potentially at risk of contracting the virus from humans due to similar genetic susceptibility. “Anthrop…
The sensory ecology of primate food perception, revisited
Twenty years ago, Dominy and colleagues published “The sensory ecology of primate food perception,” an impactful review that brought new perspectives to understanding primate foraging adaptations. Their review synthesized information on primate senses and explored how senses informed feeding behavior. Research on primate sensory ecology has seen explosive growth in the last two decades. Here, we revisit this important topic, focusing on the numer…
Genetic variation of olfactory receptor gene family in a Japanese population
The olfactory receptor (OR) gene family is comprised of hundreds of intact and disrupted genes in humans. The compositions and copy number variation (CNV) of disrupted and intact OR genes among individuals is expected to cause variation in olfactory perception. However, little is known about OR genetic variation in many human populations. In this study, we used targeted capture enrichment and massive parallel short-read sequencing methods to exam…
Variation in predicted Covid‐19 risk among lemurs and lorises
The novel coronavirus SARS‐CoV‐2, which in humans leads to the disease COVID‐19, has caused global disruption and more than 2 million fatalities since it first emerged in late 2019. As we write, infection rates are at their highest point globally and are rising extremely rapidly in some areas due to more infectious variants. The primary target of SARS‐CoV‐2 is the cellular receptor angiotensin‐converting enzyme‐2 (ACE2). Recent sequence analyses …
On the trail of primate scent signals
Chemosignals are mediators of social interactions in mammals, providing con‐ and hetero‐specifics with information on fixed (e.g., species, sex, group, and individual identity) and variable (e.g., social, reproductive, and health status) features of the signaler. Yet, methodological difficulties of recording and quantifying odor signals, especially in field conditions, have hampered studies of natural systems. We present the first use of the Tori…
Fermented food consumption in wild nonhuman primates and its ecological drivers
OBJECTIVES: Although fermented food use is ubiquitous in humans, the ecological and evolutionary factors contributing to its emergence are unclear. Here we investigated the ecological contexts surrounding the consumption of fruits in the late stages of fermentation by wild primates to provide insight into its adaptive function. We hypothesized that climate, socioecological traits, and habitat patch size would influence the occurrence of this beha…
Visual detection and fruit selection by the mantled howler monkey ( Alouatta palliata )
Howler monkeys (platyrrhini) have evolved routine trichromatic color vision independently from catarrhines, which presents an opportunity to test hypotheses concerning the adaptive value of distinguishing reddish from greenish hues. A longstanding hypothesis posits that trichromacy aids in the efficient detection of reddish‐ripe fruits, which could be an advantage for the detection of the nutritional content of the fruit, such as sugars. In the p…
Liminal Light and Primate Evolution
The adaptive origins of primates and anthropoid primates are topics of enduring interest to biological anthropologists. A convention in these discussions is to treat the light environment as binary-night is dark, day is light-and to impute corresponding selective pressure on the visual systems and behaviors of primates. In consequence, debate has tended to focus on whether a given trait can be interpreted as evidence of nocturnal or diurnal behav…
Small to modest impact of social group on the gut microbiome of wild Costa Rican capuchins in a seasonal forest
The horizontal transmission of pathogenic and beneficial microbes has implications for health and development of socially living animals. Social group is repeatedly implicated as an important predictor of gut microbiome structure among primates, with individuals in neighboring social groups exhibiting distinct microbiomes. Here we examine whether group membership is a predictor of gut microbiome structure and diversity across three groups of whit…
Platyrrhine color signals
Like catarrhines, some platyrrhines show exposed and reddish skin, raising the possibility that reddish signals have evolved convergently. This variation in skin exposure and color combined with sex‐linked polymorphic color vision in platyrrhines presents a unique, and yet underexplored, opportunity to investigate the relative importance of chromatic versus achromatic signals, the influence of color perception on signal evolution, and to understa…
The nutritional importance of invertebrates to female Cebus capucinus imitator in a highly seasonal tropical dry forest
OBJECTIVES: Invertebrates are important foods for many primates and provide valuable nutrients often unavailable from plant sources. We examine the diet of white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus imitator) to determine: (a) timing and types of invertebrate food consumption; (b) whether invertebrate consumption varies with availability of plant foods; and (c) how invertebrates contribute to energy and protein intake of females during different repr…
The Behavioral Ecology of Color Vision
Seasonality, extractive foraging and the evolution of primate sensorimotor intelligence
Reproductive Seasonality in Female Capuchins (Cebus capucinus) in Santa Rosa (Area de Conservación Guanacaste), Costa Rica
Fig Foraging by Dichromatic and Trichromatic Cebus capucinus in a Tropical Dry Forest
Fermented food consumption in wild nonhuman primates and its ecological drivers
OBJECTIVES: Although fermented food use is ubiquitous in humans, the ecological and evolutionary factors contributing to its emergence are unclear. Here we investigated the ecological contexts surrounding the consumption of fruits in the late stages of fermentation by wild primates to provide insight into its adaptive function. We hypothesized that climate, socioecological traits, and habitat patch size would influence the occurrence of this beha…
Seasonal importance of flowers to Costa Rican capuchins ( Cebus capucinus imitator )
OBJECTIVES: Our goal is to investigate flower foraging by capuchin monkeys, a behavior rarely studied in wild primates. We ask what drives seasonal variation in florivory rates: flower quality and abundance or fluctuations in fruit and invertebrate abundances. We explore how capuchins affect the reproductive success of flower food species by quantifying the potential pollination rate. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We followed capuchin groups from dawn t…
Male endocrine response to seasonally varying environmental and social factors in a neotropical primate, Cebus capucinus
OBJECTIVE: Circannual variation in reproduction is pervasive in birds and mammals. In primates, breeding seasonality is variable, with seasonal birth peaks occurring even in year-round breeders. Environmental seasonality is reportedly an important contributor to the observed variation in reproductive seasonality. Given that food availability is the primary factor constraining female reproduction, predictions concerning responsiveness to environme…
Technical Note
Calcium stable isotope ratios are hypothesized to vary as a function of trophic level. This premise raises the possibility of using calcium stable isotope ratios to study the dietary behaviors of fossil taxa and to test competing hypotheses on the adaptive origins of euprimates. To explore this concept, we measured the stable isotope composition of contemporary mammals in northern Borneo and northwestern Costa Rica, two communities with functiona…
Smell throughout the life course
The sense of smell is an important mediator of health and sociality at all stages of life, yet it has received limited attention in our lineage. Olfaction starts in utero and participates in the establishment of social bonds in children, and of romantic and sexual relationships after puberty. Smell further plays a key role in food assessment and danger avoidance; in modern societies, it also guides our consumer behavior. Sensory abilities typical…
Liminal Light and Primate Evolution
The adaptive origins of primates and anthropoid primates are topics of enduring interest to biological anthropologists. A convention in these discussions is to treat the light environment as binary-night is dark, day is light-and to impute corresponding selective pressure on the visual systems and behaviors of primates. In consequence, debate has tended to focus on whether a given trait can be interpreted as evidence of nocturnal or diurnal behav…
The nutritional importance of invertebrates to female Cebus capucinus imitator in a highly seasonal tropical dry forest
OBJECTIVES: Invertebrates are important foods for many primates and provide valuable nutrients often unavailable from plant sources. We examine the diet of white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus imitator) to determine: (a) timing and types of invertebrate food consumption; (b) whether invertebrate consumption varies with availability of plant foods; and (c) how invertebrates contribute to energy and protein intake of females during different repr…
Using urinary parameters to estimate seasonal variation in the physical condition of female white‐faced capuchin monkeys ( Cebus capucinus imitator )
OBJECTIVES: The physical condition of females depends on access to resources, which vary over space and time. Assessing variation in physical condition can help identify factors affecting reproductive success, but noninvasive measurement is difficult in wild animals. Creatinine concentration relative to the specific gravity (i.e., density) of urine has promise for noninvasively quantifying the relative muscle mass (RMM) of wild primates. We verif…
The Genetic Basis of Primate Behavior
Fig Foraging by Dichromatic and Trichromatic Cebus capucinus in a Tropical Dry Forest
Reproductive Seasonality in Female Capuchins (Cebus capucinus) in Santa Rosa (Area de Conservación Guanacaste), Costa Rica
Why Aye‐Ayes See Blue
The capacity for cone‐mediated color vision varies among nocturnal primates. Some species are colorblind, having lost the functionality of their short‐wavelength‐sensitive‐1 ( SWS1 ) opsin pigment gene. In other species, such as the aye‐aye ( D aubentonia madagascariensis ), the SWS1 gene remains intact. Recent studies focused on aye‐ayes indicate that this gene has been maintained by natural selection and that the pigment has a peak sensitivity …
Anointing variation across wild capuchin populations
The frequency of anointing bouts and the materials used for self‐ and social anointing vary across capuchin species in captivity, but there is little published data on capuchin anointing in the wild. Here we present previously unpublished data on anointing behaviors from capuchin monkey populations at ten different field sites and incorporate these data into a review of the anointing literature for captive and wild capuchins. Using a comparative …
The Behavioral Ecology of Color Vision
The Genetic Basis of Primate Behavior
Technical Note
Calcium stable isotope ratios are hypothesized to vary as a function of trophic level. This premise raises the possibility of using calcium stable isotope ratios to study the dietary behaviors of fossil taxa and to test competing hypotheses on the adaptive origins of euprimates. To explore this concept, we measured the stable isotope composition of contemporary mammals in northern Borneo and northwestern Costa Rica, two communities with functiona…
Seasonality, extractive foraging and the evolution of primate sensorimotor intelligence
Quantifying seasonal fallback on invertebrates, pith, and bromeliad leaves by white‐faced capuchin monkeys ( C ebus capucinus ) in a tropical dry forest
OBJECTIVES: Fallback foods (FBFs) are hypothesized to shape the ecology, morphology, and behavior of primates, including hominins. Identifying FBFs is therefore critical for revealing past and present foraging adaptations. Recent research suggests invertebrates act as seasonal FBFs for many primate species and human populations. Yet, studies measuring the consumption of invertebrates relative to ecological variation are widely lacking. We address…
Seasonal importance of flowers to Costa Rican capuchins ( Cebus capucinus imitator )
OBJECTIVES: Our goal is to investigate flower foraging by capuchin monkeys, a behavior rarely studied in wild primates. We ask what drives seasonal variation in florivory rates: flower quality and abundance or fluctuations in fruit and invertebrate abundances. We explore how capuchins affect the reproductive success of flower food species by quantifying the potential pollination rate. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We followed capuchin groups from dawn t…
Male endocrine response to seasonally varying environmental and social factors in a neotropical primate, Cebus capucinus
OBJECTIVE: Circannual variation in reproduction is pervasive in birds and mammals. In primates, breeding seasonality is variable, with seasonal birth peaks occurring even in year-round breeders. Environmental seasonality is reportedly an important contributor to the observed variation in reproductive seasonality. Given that food availability is the primary factor constraining female reproduction, predictions concerning responsiveness to environme…
Using urinary parameters to estimate seasonal variation in the physical condition of female white‐faced capuchin monkeys ( Cebus capucinus imitator )
OBJECTIVES: The physical condition of females depends on access to resources, which vary over space and time. Assessing variation in physical condition can help identify factors affecting reproductive success, but noninvasive measurement is difficult in wild animals. Creatinine concentration relative to the specific gravity (i.e., density) of urine has promise for noninvasively quantifying the relative muscle mass (RMM) of wild primates. We verif…
Small to modest impact of social group on the gut microbiome of wild Costa Rican capuchins in a seasonal forest
The horizontal transmission of pathogenic and beneficial microbes has implications for health and development of socially living animals. Social group is repeatedly implicated as an important predictor of gut microbiome structure among primates, with individuals in neighboring social groups exhibiting distinct microbiomes. Here we examine whether group membership is a predictor of gut microbiome structure and diversity across three groups of whit…
Platyrrhine color signals
Like catarrhines, some platyrrhines show exposed and reddish skin, raising the possibility that reddish signals have evolved convergently. This variation in skin exposure and color combined with sex‐linked polymorphic color vision in platyrrhines presents a unique, and yet underexplored, opportunity to investigate the relative importance of chromatic versus achromatic signals, the influence of color perception on signal evolution, and to understa…
The nutritional importance of invertebrates to female Cebus capucinus imitator in a highly seasonal tropical dry forest
OBJECTIVES: Invertebrates are important foods for many primates and provide valuable nutrients often unavailable from plant sources. We examine the diet of white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus imitator) to determine: (a) timing and types of invertebrate food consumption; (b) whether invertebrate consumption varies with availability of plant foods; and (c) how invertebrates contribute to energy and protein intake of females during different repr…
Visual detection and fruit selection by the mantled howler monkey ( Alouatta palliata )
Howler monkeys (platyrrhini) have evolved routine trichromatic color vision independently from catarrhines, which presents an opportunity to test hypotheses concerning the adaptive value of distinguishing reddish from greenish hues. A longstanding hypothesis posits that trichromacy aids in the efficient detection of reddish‐ripe fruits, which could be an advantage for the detection of the nutritional content of the fruit, such as sugars. In the p…
Liminal Light and Primate Evolution
The adaptive origins of primates and anthropoid primates are topics of enduring interest to biological anthropologists. A convention in these discussions is to treat the light environment as binary-night is dark, day is light-and to impute corresponding selective pressure on the visual systems and behaviors of primates. In consequence, debate has tended to focus on whether a given trait can be interpreted as evidence of nocturnal or diurnal behav…
Variation in predicted Covid‐19 risk among lemurs and lorises
The novel coronavirus SARS‐CoV‐2, which in humans leads to the disease COVID‐19, has caused global disruption and more than 2 million fatalities since it first emerged in late 2019. As we write, infection rates are at their highest point globally and are rising extremely rapidly in some areas due to more infectious variants. The primary target of SARS‐CoV‐2 is the cellular receptor angiotensin‐converting enzyme‐2 (ACE2). Recent sequence analyses …
On the trail of primate scent signals
Chemosignals are mediators of social interactions in mammals, providing con‐ and hetero‐specifics with information on fixed (e.g., species, sex, group, and individual identity) and variable (e.g., social, reproductive, and health status) features of the signaler. Yet, methodological difficulties of recording and quantifying odor signals, especially in field conditions, have hampered studies of natural systems. We present the first use of the Tori…
Fermented food consumption in wild nonhuman primates and its ecological drivers
OBJECTIVES: Although fermented food use is ubiquitous in humans, the ecological and evolutionary factors contributing to its emergence are unclear. Here we investigated the ecological contexts surrounding the consumption of fruits in the late stages of fermentation by wild primates to provide insight into its adaptive function. We hypothesized that climate, socioecological traits, and habitat patch size would influence the occurrence of this beha…
Sars‐CoV‐2 and wastewater
In most of our lifetimes, we have not faced a global pandemic such as the novel coronavirus disease 2019. The world has changed as a result. However, it is not only humans who are affected by a pandemic of this scale. Our closest relatives, the non‐human primates (NHPs) who encounter researchers, sanctuary/zoo employees, and tourists, are also potentially at risk of contracting the virus from humans due to similar genetic susceptibility. “Anthrop…
The sensory ecology of primate food perception, revisited
Twenty years ago, Dominy and colleagues published “The sensory ecology of primate food perception,” an impactful review that brought new perspectives to understanding primate foraging adaptations. Their review synthesized information on primate senses and explored how senses informed feeding behavior. Research on primate sensory ecology has seen explosive growth in the last two decades. Here, we revisit this important topic, focusing on the numer…
Genetic variation of olfactory receptor gene family in a Japanese population
The olfactory receptor (OR) gene family is comprised of hundreds of intact and disrupted genes in humans. The compositions and copy number variation (CNV) of disrupted and intact OR genes among individuals is expected to cause variation in olfactory perception. However, little is known about OR genetic variation in many human populations. In this study, we used targeted capture enrichment and massive parallel short-read sequencing methods to exam…
Evaluating genital skin color as a putative sexual signal in wild saddleback ( Leontocebus weddelli ) and emperor ( Saguinus imperator ) tamarins
Coevolution between signalers and receivers has played a significant role in the diversity of animal signals and sensory systems. Platyrrhines (monkeys in the Americas) exhibit a remarkable color vision polymorphism that may have been selected by both natural and sexual selection, but sociosexual color signaling among platyrrhines has received almost no attention. Here, we study the color of reproductive skin among different reproductive classes …
Assessing color cues of development, breeding status and reproductive condition in captive golden lion tamarins ( Leontopithecus rosalia )
Color signals play an important role in intraspecific communication and are well studied in catarrhine primates, which exhibit uniform trichromatic vision that is well suited to detecting such signals. Platyrrhine primates exhibit polymorphic color vision with different individuals possessing different color vision types in most species. Intriguingly, some platyrrhine species exhibit bare faces, which are convergent with those of catarrhines. How…
Biology (32 obras) · Primate Behavior and Ecology (27 obras) · Ecology (25 obras) · Zoology (18 obras) · Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies (14 obras) · Primate (12 obras) · Ecology (10 obras) · Evolutionary biology (9 obras) · Animal Behavior and Reproduction (7 obras) · Animal ecology (7 obras)