Eduardo Fernandez-Duque

• Professor (Full) at Yale University

The records of the false vampire bat Chrotopterus auritus (Peters, 1856) and lesser bulldog bat Noc-tilio albiventris Desmarest, 1818 in the Humid Chaco of Argentina are scarce, with a few specimens collected in 1938 and 1976, respectively. In 2022, we captured specimens of both species using mist nets at Estancia Guaycolec, Formosa. Furthermore, t...

Se utilizaron modelos predictivos para estimar la distribución de cada especie y se desarrollaron análisis de priorización espacial a través del software Zonation, para generar posibles áreas de importancia a nivel nacional y ecorregional de las 5 especies de primates que habitan en Argentina: Alouatta guariba, Alouatta caraya, Aotus azarae, Sapaju...

Natal dispersal is an important life-history stage influencing individual fitness, social dynamics of groups and population structure. Understanding factors influencing dispersal is essential for evaluating explanations for the evolution and maintenance of social organization, including parental care and mating systems. The social and mating system...

Olfactory behaviors serve a wide variety of social functions in mammals. Odor may signal information about attributes of individuals important for mating and reproduction. Olfactory behaviors, such as scent‐marking, may also function as part of home range or resource defense strategies. We assessed the potential social and home range defense functi...

Conservation funding is currently limited; cost-effective conservation solutions are essential. We suggest that the thousands of field stations worldwide can play key roles at the frontline of biodiversity conservation and have high intrinsic value. We assessed field stations’ conservation return on investment and explored the impact of COVID-19. W...

Noncoding DNA is central to our understanding of human gene regulation and complex diseases1,2, and measuring the evolutionary sequence constraint can establish the functional relevance of putative regulatory elements in the human genome3–9. Identifying the genomic elements that have become constrained specifically in primates has been hampered by...

The function of intergroup encounters (IGEs) may differ substantially among species of different group sizes and social organizations. Research in group‐living primates has shown that the behavioral responses during IGEs can vary widely from affiliative to neutral or aggressive interactions; still, little is known about IGEs in pair‐living taxa. We...

Simple Summary Each of the five primate species inhabiting Argentina faces various threats in terms of conservation that hamper their ability to coexist with human populations. These threats have in common that they are the result of human actions and changes in the landscape, and they all have consequences that may result in human–primate conflict...

Personalized genome sequencing has revealed millions of genetic differences between individuals, but our understanding of their clinical relevance remains largely incomplete. To systematically decipher the effects of human genetic variants, we obtained whole-genome sequencing data for 809 individuals from 233 primate species and identified 4.3 mill...

The rich diversity of morphology and behavior displayed across primate species provides an informative context in which to study the impact of genomic diversity on fundamental biological processes. Analysis of that diversity provides insight into long-standing questions in evolutionary and conservation biology and is urgent given severe threats the...

Personalized genome sequencing has revealed millions of genetic differences between individuals, but our understanding of their clinical relevance remains largely incomplete. To systematically decipher the effects of human genetic variants, we obtained whole genome sequencing data for 809 individuals from 233 primate species, and identified 4.3 mil...

The rich diversity of morphology and behavior displayed across primate species provides an informative context in which to study the impact of genomic diversity on fundamental biological processes. Analysis of that diversity provides insight into long-standing questions in evolutionary and conservation biology, and is urgent given severe threats th...

https://www.conicet.gov.ar/identifican-cuales-son-las-areas-prioritarias-para-conservar-a-los-primates-de-argentina/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1auWMdul50

Argentina lies within the southernmost distributional range of five neotropical primates, the brown howler monkey Alouatta guariba, the black-and-gold howler monkey Alouatta caraya, the black-horned capuchin Sapajus nigritus, the Azara’s capuchin Sapajus cay, and the Azara’s owl monkey Aotus azarae; the first three of which are globally threatened....

Direct care of offspring by the father (sire) is relatively rare in primates. Besides humans, there are a number of species where the male is essential for the survival of offspring: marmosets, tamarins, titis and owl monkeys, some lemurs, and siamangs. All these species show reduced sexual dimorphism, territoriality, and biparental care. However,...

The microbiome is critical to host health and disease, but much remains unknown about the determinants, levels, and evolution of host-microbial diversity. The relationship between hosts and their associated microbes is complex.

Aim: Comprehensive, global information on species' occurrences is an essential biodiversity variable and central to a range of applications in ecology, evolution, biogeography and conservation. Expert range maps often represent a species' only available distributional information and play an increasing role in conservation assessments and macroeco...

The circadian thermoenergetics hypothesis (CTEH) suggests that endotherms benefit by being active during the warmer period of a 24 h cycle and by resting when temperatures drop, since this lowers energetic investment in thermoregulation. In accordance with the CTEH, cathemeral (i.e. active during both daytime and night-time) Azara's owl monkeys, Ao...

Loud calls play an important function in regulating the use of space and structuring social groups and mating systems in a wide range of taxa. In pair-living territorial animals, where encounters with neighbors and solitary conspecifics are common, these calls are mainly associated with resource defense or mate guarding behaviors. Owl monkeys (Aotu...

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, numerous academic conferences and seminars were moved online. Some remote (online) seminars have the aim to be maintained permanently after the pandemic, offering weekly opportunities for scientists, postdocs, and students to learn about research and to improve global networking. Remote seminars are a good option...

Objectives We quantified variation in fecal cortisol across reproductive periods in Azara's owl monkeys (Aotus azarae) to examine physiological mechanisms that may facilitate biparental care. Specifically, we evaluated evidence for the explanation that owl monkeys have hormonal mechanisms to mobilize energy during periods when each sex is investing...

A recent focus in community ecology has been on how within‐species variability shapes interspecific niche partitioning. Primate color vision offers a rich system in which to explore this issue. Most neotropical primates exhibit intraspecific variation in color vision due to allelic variation at the middle‐to‐long‐wavelength opsin gene on the X chro...

This is a presentation that summarizes some of the main points made in my Frontiers in Social Evolution International Remote Seminar

Before the availability of artificial light, moonlight was the only source of light sufficient to stimulate nighttime activity; still, evidence for the modulation of sleep timing by lunar phases is controversial. Here, we use wrist actimetry to show a clear synchronization of nocturnal sleep timing with the lunar cycle in participants living in env...

Patterns of ranging behavior and space use are key for evaluating current ideas about the evolution and maintenance of pair-living and sexual monogamy as they provide insights into the dispersion of females, the potential for territoriality, and whether males are limited to defending an area that can support only one female and her offspring. We ex...

Species-life history patterns provide insights into the adaptative strategies and importance of social behaviours. The cathemeral activity pattern of Aotus azarae allowed researchers from the Owl Monkey Project of Formosa, Argentina, to witness remarkable life changing events over the complete lifespan of several individuals. Here we summarize the...

Key to the transition of humans from nomadic hunting‐gathering groups to industrialized and highly urbanized societies was the creation of protected and artificially lit environments that extended the natural daylight hours and consolidated sleep away from nocturnal threats. These conditions isolated humans from the natural regulators of sleep and...

As humans transitioned from hunter-gatherer to agricultural to highly urbanized post-industrial communities they progressively created environments that isolated sleep from its ancestral regulators, including the natural light-dark cycle. A prominent feature of this isolation is the availability of artificial light during the night, which delays th...

"Monogamy" and pair bonding have long been of interest to anthropologists and primatologists. Their study contributes to our knowledge of human evolutionary biology and social evolution without the cultural trappings associated with studying human societies directly. Here, we first provide an overview of theoretical considerations, followed by an e...

Behavioral ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and anthropologists have been long fascinated by the existence of “monogamy” in the animal kingdom. Multiple studies have explored the factors underlying its evolution and maintenance, sometimes with contradicting and contentious conclusions. These studies have been plagued by a persistent use of fuzz...

Primates use different types of vocalizations in a variety of contexts. Some of the most studied types have been the long distance or loud calls. These vocalizations have been associated with mate defense, mate attraction, and resource defense, and it is plausible that sexual selection has played an important role in their evolution. Focusing on id...

For arboreal primates, ground use may increase dispersal opportunities, tolerance to habitat change, access to ground-based resources, and resilience to human disturbances, and so has conservation implications. We collated published and unpublished data from 86 studies across 65 localities to assess titi monkey (Callicebinae) terrestriality. We exa...

The weekend effect hypothesis proposes that captive primates are more likely to give birth during times of low disturbance and reduced staff activity. The hypothesis specifically predicts that laboratory-housed primates will be more likely to give birth during the weekend than weekdays when staff activity is reduced. To date, support for the weeken...

We examined photic and ecological factors related to initiation of feeding by four sympatric primates in the rain forest of Amazonian Ecuador. With rare exceptions, morning activities of all taxa began only after the onset of nautical twilight, which occurred 47–48 min before sunrise. The larger spider and woolly monkeys, Ateles belzebuth and Lagot...

Dataset used for the study. Group or Individual: For Plectrocebus and Pithecia, social group is indicated by one or two letters, and both sexes are considered together. For Ateles and Lagothrix, the individual and its sex is indicated. If the individual or sex was unknown, the corresponding cell is empty. When a female/male pair of individuals is l...

Random factors in final models. (DOCX)

The current extinction and climate change crises pressure us to predict population dynamics with ever-greater accuracy. Although predictions rest on the well-advanced theory of age-structured populations, two key issues remain poorly explored. Specifically, how the age-dependency in demographic rates and the year-to-year interactions between surviv...

Simple Summary Titi monkeys—a diversified group of pair-bonded, territorial neotropical primates exhibiting biparental care—produce elaborate, powerful vocal duets used for long-range communication. While the callicebine taxonomy has been centered mainly on the biogeography, morphology, anatomy, and genetics of titi populations, vocal attributes ha...

Alloparental care is defined as care provided to offspring by individuals other than the parents. There are different types of care that other group members may provide to infants, but the main types studied have been carrying, nursing, and food sharing. Alloparental care takes one of the most extreme expressions among the cooperative breeding syst...

Objectives Territoriality refers to the consistent defense of an area within the home range (HR) against intrusions of conspecifics. It implies exclusive space use with low degree of overlap among neighboring groups, high site fidelity, specific ranging behavior such as high mobility relative to HR size and frequent visits of territory borders, and...

Objectives Sexual selection has seemingly influenced chemical communication in numerous non‐human primates, although it is unclear whether it has influenced strictly pair‐living and pair‐bonded taxa. The physical similarities between male and female owl monkeys suggest that disruptive selection has not played a role in this taxon. However, given th...

Broadening our knowledge of olfactory communication in strictly monogamous systems can inform our understanding of how chemosignals may facilitate social and reproductive behavior between the sexes. Compared to other social and mating systems, relatively little is known about olfactory communication in strictly monogamous non-human primates. Furthe...

Agonistic behaviors are common in many group-living taxa and may serve a variety of functions, ranging from regulating conflicts over reproduction to defending food resources. However, high rates of agonism are not expected to occur among close relatives or individuals in established mating relationships, which are characteristics of monogamous gro...

Pair-living and socially monogamous primates typically do not reproduce before dispersing. It is currently unclear whether this reproductive suppression is due to endocrine or behavioral mechanisms. Cooperatively breeding taxa, like callitrichids, may forego reproduction in natal groups because they reap inclusive fitness benefits and/or they are a...

The Humid Chaco has a high mammalian biodiversity. As habitats are threatened due to exploitation and environmental degradation, protected areas can act as refuges for wild animals. In 2006, ca 1,100 ha of gallery forest were established as the “Owl Monkey Reserve” within the private cattle ranch “Estancia Guaycoléc”. The mammalian species richness...

The fate and behaviour of animals that leave their natal group (‘floaters’) is usually poorly understood, which can limit the understanding of a species' population dynamics. Attempted immigrations can have serious negative effects on residents who therefore may forcibly reject intruders. Consequently, floaters face a dilemma: they need to leave th...

Darting, a common method of capturing wild primates, poses risks to the individuals that must be appropriately minimized. A recent article in the International Journal of Primatology by Cunningham et al. (International Journal of Primatology, 36(5), 894–915, 2015) presented a literature review of the reporting of darting procedures in primatology a...

Saki monkeys (Pithecia spp.) live in pairs and small groups, sometimes with more than 1 same-sex adult. Previous studies have not been able to distinguish additional, unrelated adults from adult-sized offspring, but both can influence social relationships and mating strategies, albeit in different ways. In this study, we documented the immigration...

Radio telemetry is the use of radio waves to convey information over distances from a transmitter to a receiver. The system is used in primatology to rapidly track and find primates and to identify individuals, which facilitates data collection. There are two main ways of tracking primates with telemetry, their usefulness depending on the type of s...

Alloparental care is defined as care provided to offspring by individuals other than the parents of the recipient. The main types of care studied have been carrying, nursing, and food sharing, but alloparental care may also include indirect kinds of care such as grooming, playing, and territory defense. Alloparental care has its most extreme expres...

Paternal care describes behaviors performed by a father that benefit his perceived offspring. Paternal care in primates exhibits substantial variability and thus defies a single hypothesis to explain its evolution. Monogamous social organization, high maternal to infant weight ratio, territoriality, and reduced sexual dimorphism have frequently bee...

The spatiotemporal aspects of sleeping behavior are indicative of the ecological pressures that primate species face. We investigated the potential influence of predation and thermoregulatory constraints on sleeping site choice and sleep-related behaviors in a population of cathemeral owl monkeys (Aotus azarae azarae) in Formosa, Argentina. During...

Nonhuman primates, our closest biological relatives, play important roles in the livelihoods, cultures, and religions of many societies and offer unique insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and the threat of emerging diseases. They are an essential component of tropical biodiversity, contributing to forest regeneration and ecosystem he...

Recent decades have seen rapid development of new analytical methods to investigate patterns of interspecific variation. Yet these cutting-edge statistical analyses often rely on data of questionable origin, varying accuracy, and weak comparability, which seem to have reduced the reproducibility of studies. It is time to improve the transparency of...

The moon can profoundly influence the activity patterns of animals. If predators are more successful under bright moonlight, prey species are likely to respond by shifting their own activity patterns (predator-avoidance hypothesis). However, the assumption that prey will necessarily avoid full-moon nights does not take into account that moonlight a...

The New World subfamily Aotinae consists of the genus Aotus, commonly called owl monkeys. The genus includes 11 species, which range over a variety of forest habitats, from Panama to northern Argentina. Owl monkeys are the only nocturnal anthropoids: all species display either nocturnal or cathemeral activity patterns, and their level of nocturnal...

The cooperative breeding hypothesis (CBH) states that cooperative breeding, a social system in which group members help to rear offspring that are not their own, has important socio-cognitive consequences. Thornton & McAuliffe (2015; henceforth T&M) critiqued this idea on both conceptual and empirical grounds, arguing that there is no reason to pre...

While we do not yet understand all the functions of sleep, its critical role for normal physiology and behaviour is evident. Its amount and temporal pattern depend on species and condition. Humans sleep about a third of the day with the longest, consolidated episode during the night. The change in lifestyle from hunter-gatherers via agricultural co...

Background: Do evolutionary specializations lead to evolutionary constraint? This appears plausible, particularly when specialization leads to loss of complex adaptations. In the owl monkey lineage, nocturnality clearly arose from a diurnal ancestor. This behavioural shift was accompanied by morphological changes in the eye and orbit and complete...