Capuchins resist inbreeding chances.Among wild capuchin monkeys, the highest-status father often retains his position in a group long enough for his daughters to reach sexual maturity, yet inbreeding inbreeding, mating of closely related organisms. Inbreeding is chiefly used as a means of insuring the preservation of specific desired traits among the offspring of purebred animals (see breeding). is rare, a new study finds. It's not yet clear whether capuchin capuchin (kăp`y  chĭn), name for New World monkeys of the genus Cebus, widely distributed in tropical forests of Central and South America. fathers, daughters, or both take measures to prevent incest, according to a team led by geneticist Laura Muniz of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is a research institute for evolutionary anthropology based in Leipzig, Germany founded in 1997. It is part of the Max Planck Institute network. The Institute currently employs three-hundred and thirty-four people. in Leipzig, Germany. For most social animals, either males or females leave their birth group at adolescence, so opportunities for inbreeding seldom arise. In capuchins Capuchins (kăp`y chĭnz) [Ital.,=hooded ones], Roman Catholic religious order of friars, one of the independent orders of Franciscans, officially the Friars Minor Capuchin [Lat. abbr. , however, females never leave their birth group. The team used DNA DNA: see nucleic acid. DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid One of two types of nucleic acid (the other is RNA); a complex organic compound found in all living cells and many viruses. It is the chemical substance of genes. analyses to determine the fathers of 41 capuchin youngsters conceived during the 7-to-13 year tenures of three alpha males in Costa Rica. These males sired 19 of 24 infants born to females other than their daughters, compared with 1 of 17 infants born to their daughters, the researchers report in the March 7 Current Biology.--B.B. |
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