The Mechanics of Tree Gouging in Common Marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)

许多灵长类动物习惯性地以树胶和树液为食。这些树木渗出物喂食者中的一些人通过用它们的前牙咬树来主动地诱导渗出物流动。许多研究人员推测，这种挖树的行为涉及到相对较大的颌力和下巴裂口。此外，一些科学家认为，挖掘者的头骨与颌部的力量和裂口相适应。在现实中，我们对挖牙过程中的咬合力和裂口几乎一无所知。研究人员将使用他们设计的记录这些数据的设备来量化普通绒猴(Callithrix Jacchus)在挖泥过程中使用的颌力和开口。他们将分析雄性和雌性绒猴在挖不同类型的树时，颌力和裂口的大小和时间。这将使他们能够通过比较挖出的颌力与绒猴在传感器咬合过程中产生的力以及在咀嚼过程中挖出的缺口与之相比较，来评估挖出数据的相对大小。他们的结果将提供关于灵长类颌力和挖洞过程中的第一个经验数据。在这两种动物身上收集的试验数据将被用来证明该方法的可行性，并证明收集更大的绒猴样本的数据是合理的。这一结果将被应用于检验绒猴头骨适应被挖的假说。

Many primates habitually feed on tree gums and saps. Some of these tree exudate feeders actively elicit exudate flow by biting trees with their anterior teeth. Many researchers hypothesize that this tree gouging behavior involves relatively large jaw forces and jaw gapes. Further, some scientists argue that gougers have skulls adapted to these jaw forces and gapes. In reality, we know almost nothing about the jaw forces and gapes during gouging. The researchers will quantify the jaw forces and gapes that common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) use during gouging using an apparatus they designed to record these data. They will analyze the magnitude and timing of jaw forces and gapes during gouging of different tree types in a male and female marmoset. This will allow them to assess the relative magnitude of the gouging data by comparing gouging jaw forces to the forces marmosets create during transducer biting and gapes during gouging to gapes during chewing. Their results will provide the first empirical data on primate jaw forces and gapes during gouging. The pilot data collected on these two animals will be used to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach and justify collecting data on a larger marmoset sample. The results will be applied to test hypotheses of skull adaptations to gouging in marmosets.