Owl Monkey Twins Give Penn Anthropologist Eduardo Fernandez-Duque Insight into Monogamy

In 15 years of studying owl monkeys in Argentina, this was a first: Late last November, Eduardo Fernandez-Duque , assistant professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Pennsylvania, got news from his field assistants that they had spotted a set of newborn twins. The discovery of the large-eyed pair presented Fernandez-Duque with the opportunity to observe a unique twist on a common thread in his research - the division of care between male and female parents. "This has really come as a wonderful natural experiment," Fernandez-Duque said. The owl monkey twins are featured in a video produced by National Geographic. Through previous work, Fernandez-Duque and colleagues have demonstrated that the social habits of his study species are unusual in the world of monkeys. Owl monkeys are monogamous; adult males and females have exclusive sexual and, seemingly, emotional relationships. Along with his colleagues, Fernandez-Duque conducted observations of the primate family, which lives in Argentina's Chaco region.