Evolution of color vision in primates

Baboons, like other old world monkeys and apes, have eyes which can discern blue, green and red wavelengths of light

The evolution of color vision in primates is highly unusual compared to most eutherian mammals. A remote vertebrate ancestor of primates possessed tetrachromacy,[1] but nocturnal, warm-blooded, mammalian ancestors lost two of four cones in the retina at the time of dinosaurs. Most teleost fish, reptiles and birds are therefore tetrachromatic while most mammals are strictly dichromats, the exceptions being some primates and marsupials,[2] who are trichromats, and many marine mammals, who are monochromats.

  1. ^ Jacobs, G. H. (2009). "Evolution of colour vision in mammals". Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 364 (1531): 2957–2967. doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0039. PMC 2781854. PMID 19720656.
  2. ^ Arrese, C. A.; Runham, P. B; et al. (2005). "Cone topography and spectral sensitivity in two potentially trichromatic marsupials, the quokka (Setonix brachyurus) and quenda (Isoodon obesulus)". Proc. Biol. Sci. 272 (1565): 791–796. doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.3009. PMC 1599861. PMID 15888411.