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Showing posts from February, 2016

Cheek Pouches

Cheek pouches are pockets between the jaw and the cheek used to temporarily store food.  Many rodents, marsupials and monkeys have them. Apes and New World monkeys do not have cheek pouches. Old World monkeys have cheek pouches but do not use them with the same frequency.  For instance, baboons in the wild don't seem to use their cheek pouches as much as they do in captivity. It was long believed that cheek pouches were the result of an adaptation to ground foraging, to store food in high risk situation while on the ground and consume it later high in a tree, however Ciochon and Feagle argue that cercopithecines who live mostly arboreal have the largest cheek pouches. ( Primate Evolution and Human Origins ). Unlike those of rodents, primates' cheek pouches secrete large quantities of amylase - which converts starches into sugar.  In her book " Primate Behavioral Ecology ",   Karen Strier writes: " this adaptation for digesting unrip fruits, which are o...