Diversity in Primate External Eye Morphology: Previously Undescribed Traits and Their Potential Adaptive Value
Open accessAbstract
Comparative examinations of external eye morphology in primates initially focused on communicative functions of the eye. Subsequent work has failed to find consistent associations between specific eye morphologies and communicative functions. In this article, we review the field of primate external eye morphology and inspect publicly available and unpublished photographs. We identify and describe five commonly occurring traits that have not received attention so far. We cross-examined the clinical and psychological literature to propose potential adaptive functions. These potential adaptive functions include communicative functions, but also photoregulatory functions and photoprotective functions.
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Perea-García et al. [11] highlight that little attention has been paid to the variability of the iris and pupil in primates and list the potential sociocognitive functions.
“Perea-García et al. [11] highlight that little attention has been paid to the variability of the iris and pupil in primates and list the potential sociocognitive functions.”
From Are dark-eyed dogs favoured by humans? Domestication as a potential driver of iris colour difference between dogs and wolves (2023) · cites this paper as [11]
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Self-citationAdditional file 1 of Scleral appearance is not a correlate of domestication in mammals
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Perea-García, J. O., Danel, D. P., & Monteiro, A.
- Affiliations
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543, Singapore
- Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy (PL)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Venue
- Symmetry
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-07-15
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1270
- ISSN
- 2073-8994 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3179206554
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 3.92
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Symmetry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- National University of Singapore (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Acceda (Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) (submittedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF-CRP 20-2017-0001)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Urology › Comparative Animal Anatomy Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- eye shape, eye color, visual communication, photoregulation, photoprotection, adaptive function, primate vision
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