Photoregulatory functions drive variation in eye coloration across macaque species

Perea-García, JO, Massen, JJM, Ostner, J, Schülke, O, Castellano-Navarro, A, Gazagne, E, José-Domínguez, JM, Beltrán-Francés, V, Kaburu, SSK ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7456-3269, Ruppert, N, Micheletta, J, Gupta, S, Majolo, B, Maréchal, L, Pflüger, LS, Böhm, PM, Bourjade, M, Duran, E, Hobaiter, C and Monteiro, A, 2024. Photoregulatory functions drive variation in eye coloration across macaque species. Scientific Reports, 14: 29115. ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

Primates, the most colorful mammalian radiation, have previously served as an interesting model to test the functions and evolutionary drivers of variation in eye color. We assess the contribution of photo-regulatory and communicative functions to the external eye appearance of nine macaque species representing all the branches of their radiation. Macaques’ well described social structure and wide geographical distribution make them interesting to explore. We find that (1) the posterior option of the anterior eyeball is more pigmented closer to the equator, suggesting photoprotective functions. We also find that (2) the temporal side of the eyeball is more heavily pigmented than the nasal side. This suggests that eyeball pigmentation in macaques is distributed to reduce damage to the corneal limbus. The inclusion of a translocated population of M. fuscata in our analyses also suggests that external eye appearance may change quickly, perhaps owing to phenotypic plasticity. We find no evidence that communicative functions drive variation in external eye appearance in macaques. These results suggest that the amount of light in a species’ environment drives variation in eye coloration across macaque species. Furthermore, the geographical distribution of macaques hints at important factors that have yet to be accounted for, such as the reflectivity of the terrain a given species inhabits.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Scientific Reports
Creators:	Perea-García, J.O., Massen, J.J.M., Ostner, J., Schülke, O., Castellano-Navarro, A., Gazagne, E., José-Domínguez, J.M., Beltrán-Francés, V., Kaburu, S.S.K., Ruppert, N., Micheletta, J., Gupta, S., Majolo, B., Maréchal, L., Pflüger, L.S., Böhm, P.M., Bourjade, M., Duran, E., Hobaiter, C. and Monteiro, A.
Publisher:	Springer
Date:	24 November 2024
Volume:	14
ISSN:	2045-2322
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1038/s41598-024-80643-4 DOI 2300629 Other
Rights:	© the author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	27 Nov 2024 12:03
Last Modified:	17 Dec 2024 10:02
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52662

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