The effects of a 20-week nutritional insult on the skeletal development of Cebus albifrons during the 1st year of life.

Using an atlas constructed from records of a group of normal monkeys in the same colony, the effects of a 20-week low-calorie or low-protein nutritional insult on skeletal development were determined. The most significantly retarded sites were the late-forming ossifications (epiphyses, sesamoids, and tuberosites). A general increase in ossification anomalies and in individual variation was evident. The similarity of these findings to studies previously reported for man indicates the utility of nonhuman primate models for the further study of nutritional deficiency.