Social Needs Help Sculpt Primate Faces

Social needs help sculpt primate faces

Catherine Clabby

It’s hard not to stare at another primate’s face. Those expressive eyes, so often like our own, demand attention. But so do the striking differences, whether it is tomato-red skin, a snout-like nose or thick, long fur. Biologists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have concluded that sociality along with ecological pressures can be read in primate faces. In an article published in February in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, they reported significant differences between Neotropical primates that live with many of their kind compared to those that live in relative isolation. In a written exchange, associate professor Michael Alfaro and postdoctoral scientist Sharlene E. Santana described their investigation with American Scientist senior editor Catherine Clabby.

What inspired your research into primate faces?

When you see the faces of primates, you see an extraordinary diversity of shapes, colors and patterns, so we wondered what were the factors behind this diversity. Social behaviors seemed to be a very likely candidate underlying the diversity of primate faces, so that drew us in to further explore how behaviors can shape the evolution of