Morphometrics and niche metrics in prosimian locomotion: an approach to measuring locomotion, habitat, and diet

Abstract

Locomotor morphology, it is recognized, cannot be understood without an understanding of locomotor behavior. The interaction of locomotor anatomy and behavior has been successfully analyzed for single species and species pairs. Broader generalizations, however, require the demonstration of anatomical/behavioral associations for numerous sets of species. To accomplish this it is necessary to develop a method for the simultaneous quantitative description and comparison of many different parameters of the locomotor niche: locomotor behaviors, habitat usages, and diets. As a start towards achieving this we present a multidimensional approach to the description of functional parameters of the niche for prosimians. We derive quantitative evaluations of locomotor activity, habitat utilization, and diet for each of 27 species, using field data, film and video records, and the available literature. These parameters are then displayed graphically and clustered to provide profiles for comparisons both of species and variables. The multidimensional profiles reveal valuable information about activity, environment and diet, and their interactions. They permit closer comparisons with equivalent multidimensional information about prosimian structure, based on morphometric studies. The method gives useful graphical and statistical techniques for interspecific comparisons of morphometrics and niche metrics.