Detection of fruit by the Cerrado's marmoset (Callithrix penicillata): modeling color signals for different background scenarios and ambient light intensities.

Among placental mammals, only primates have trichromatic color vision, however this is not a uniform condition. Under different genetic status, Old World monkeys have routine trichromacy, while New World monkeys show a visual polymorphism, characterized by obligatory male dichromacy. The ecological role of this genetic difference still remains unclear, but some studies show that dichromats and trichromats appear to have different abilities in detecting colored targets against a background of leaves. The Cerrado's marmoset (Callithrix penicillata) is known to forage in brightly illuminated (savanna-like vegetation) and dimly illuminated (forests) environments, exploiting a high amount of dark fruits. Hence, it seems to be a good model for studying the differential advantages enjoyed by each color vision phenotype under natural conditions. Our aim was to verify how the different phenotypes of Cerrado's marmoset detect components of their diet, evaluating the existence of differential phenotype advantages. Under two different light conditions, visual signals of naturally consumed fruits were modeled against different backgrounds scenarios. Even though dichromats and trichromats appear to be equally suited for tasks involving fruit detection, phenotype differential advantages are observed in this marmoset. In many conditions trichromats are predicted to perform better than dichromats, but under low ambient light dichromats manage to outperform trichromats in some scenarios. Phenotypes that carry widely spaced and longer M/L pigments enjoy the most advantage. These differential performances of trichromatic phenotypes, together with overdominance selection, seem to explain the maintenance of the tri-allelic system found in callitrichids. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.