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

许多灵长类动物习惯以树胶和树液为食。 这些树分泌物饲养者积极引发分泌物流咬树木与他们的前牙。 许多研究人员假设，这种树刨行为涉及相对较大的颌骨力量和颌骨张开。 此外，一些科学家认为，凿凿者的头骨适应这些下巴的力量和张口。 实际上，我们对凿削过程中的颌力和颌间间隙几乎一无所知。 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）在凿槽过程中使用的下颌力和张口度。 他们将分析雄性和雌性绒猴在刨削不同类型的树木时下颌力和张口的大小和时间。 这将使他们能够通过比较刨削钳口力与绒猴在换能器咬合期间产生的力以及刨削期间的张口与咀嚼期间的张口来评估刨削数据的相对大小。 他们的研究结果将提供第一个关于灵长类动物在刨削过程中颌骨受力和张开的经验数据。 在这两只动物上收集的试验数据将用于证明该方法的可行性，并证明在更大的绒猴样本上收集数据的合理性。 结果将用于测试狨猴头骨对凿削的适应性假设。

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.