Common Marmoset

TAXONOMY = cool Latin name!

Family: Cebidae
Subfamily: Callitrichinae
Genus: Callithrix
Subgenus: Callithrix
Species: C. jacchus

Other names: true marmoset or white-tufted-ear marmoset

Coat color and appearance:

 Body size:

 Dentition:

 Life History:

 Locomotion:

 Conservation status: Least concern

 

Diet

The common marmoset, like other marmosets and tamarins, relies on a diet of tree exudates (gums and saps), small animal prey, and fruits.

Dependence on tree exudates is very common among marmosets, but is much less so among tamarins. Among marmosets, but not among tamarins, exudates often serve as an important food source when others are limited.

 Behavior:

After waking up, common marmosets feed intensively for about an hour and then spend the rest of the day alternating between feeding, resting, and socializing. When they rest, common marmosets adopt a sprawling position and can spend long periods of time (over 30 minutes) without moving. At the end of the day, common marmosets enter sleeping trees about one hour before sunset; A group sleeps together in a sleeping site presumably for safety from predators.