Positional Behavior in Malagasy Primates

在马达加斯加岛上许多独特的动植物中，有四十多种狐猴目灵长类动物。在骨骼解剖方面，这些动物代表了最早的原始灵长类动物（始新世的适应动物科和无齿动物科）的最佳相似物。因此，研究这些动物的位置行为（姿势和运动）对于彻底了解早期灵长类动物的运动系统至关重要。虽然马达加斯加狐猴的社会行为和生态方面已成为若干研究的主题，但位置行为尚未得到详细、客观、定量的审查，以便产生对形态学和历史研究最有用的各种数据。这个项目的目的是收集生活在拉诺马法纳国家公园12种狐猴群落中的6种马达加斯加狐猴的此类数据。这些动物所代表的物种数量、体型范围、系统发育多样性和微栖息地使得许多重要的比较得以进行，这些比较可以检验各种因素对位置行为表达的影响。本研究的结果将与其他灵长类动物的类似研究进行比较，旨在产生和测试体型、栖息地结构和遗传对灵长类动物位置行为影响的本质和规律。

Among many unique animals and plants on the island of Madagascar are more than forty species of lemuriform primates. In terms of skeletal anatomy these animals represent the best living analogues for the earliest euprimates (Eocene Adapidae and Omomyidae). Thus, a study of the positional behavior (posture and locomotion) of these animals is crucial for a thorough understanding of the locomotor system of early primates. Although aspects of social behavior and ecology of Malagasy lemurs have been the subject of several studies, positional behavior has not received the detailed, objective, quantitative scrutiny it needs in order to generate the kinds of data most useful for integration with morphological and historical studies. The purpose of this project is to collect such data for six species of Malagasy lemurs living among a community of 12 species at Ranomafana National Park. The number of species, ranges of body sizes, phylogenetic diversity, and microhabitats represented by these animals allow many crucial comparisons to be made which test the influence of various factors on the expressions of positional behavior. The results generated from this study will be compared with similar studies on other primates, with the aim of generating and testing the nature and regularity of the influence of body size, habitat structure, and heritage on primate positional behavior.