The facial expression musculature in primates and its evolutionary significance

@article{Burrows2008TheFE,
  title={The facial expression musculature in primates and its evolutionary significance},
  author={Anne M. Burrows},
  journal={BioEssays},
  year={2008},
  volume={30}
}
  • A. Burrows
  • Published 1 March 2008
  • Biology, Psychology
  • BioEssays
Facial expression is a mode of close‐proximity non‐vocal communication used by primates and is produced by mimetic/facial musculature. Arguably, primates make the most‐intricate facial displays and have some of the most‐complex facial musculature of all mammals. Most of the earlier ideas of primate mimetic musculature, involving its function in facial displays and its evolution, were essentially linear “scala natural” models of increasing complexity. More‐recent work has challenged these ideas… 
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132 Citations

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Citation Type

Evolution of the Muscles of Facial Expression in a Monogamous Ape: Evaluating the Relative Influences of Ecological and Phylogenetic Factors in Hylobatids
TLDR
Results indicate that environmental and social factors may have been important in determining morphology and complexity of facial musculature in the less social hylobatids and that they may not have experienced as strong selection pressure for mimetic muscle complexity as other, more social primates.
The expression of care: Alloparental care frequency predicts neural control of facial muscles in primates
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Alloparenting requires increased facial dexterity to facilitate nonverbal communication between infants and their nonparent caregivers and/or between caregivers, and alloparents and complex facial expressions are likely to have coevolved in primates.
Facial musculature in the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta): evolutionary and functional contexts with comparisons to chimpanzees and humans
TLDR
The results showed that there was a greater number of facial muscles in rhesus macaques than previously described (24 muscles), including variably present zygomaticus minor, levator labii superioris alaeque nasi, depressor septi, anterior auricularis, inferior auriculari and depressor supercilii muscles.
Evolution of facial musculature
TLDR
The face of humans and other mammals is a complex morphological structure in which both external and internal parts function in conveying information relevant for social interactions, and internal and external anatomical features of the face are also tightly connected in their function.
Of Mice, Monkeys, And Men: Physiological And Morphological Evidence For Evolutionary Divergence Of Function In Mimetic Musculature
TLDR
Results from this study may indicate that the rhesus macaque OOM and ZM muscle are specialized primarily to assist with maintenance of the rigid dominance hierarchy via rapid facial displays of submission and aggression, whereas human musculature may have evolved not only under pressure to work in facial expressions but also in development of speech.
The Mobility of the Human Face: More than Just the Musculature
TLDR
Investigating the SMAS (the superficial musculo‐aponeurotic system), a connective tissue layer enclosing the mimetic musculature located between the skin and deep fascia/periosteum, indicates that a SMAS layer was present in all anthropoid species but neither of the prosimian species.
Human Faces Are Slower than Chimpanzee Faces
TLDR
The findings demonstrate that the human face is slower than that of rhesus macaques and the authors' closest living relative, the chimpanzee and support the assertion that human facial musculature and speech co-evolved.
Social variables exert selective pressures in the evolution and form of primate mimetic musculature
TLDR
Ecomorphologists should be aware of social selective pressures as well as ecological ones, and that observed morphology might reflect a compromise between the demands of the physical and the social environments.
Brief communication: MaqFACS: A muscle-based facial movement coding system for the rhesus macaque.
TLDR
Here, the development of a muscular-based system for measuring facial movement in rhesus macaques is described based on the well-known FACS and ChimpFACS, which describe facial movement according to the action of the underlying facial musculature, which is highly conserved across primates.
Adaptive evolution of facial colour patterns in Neotropical primates
TLDR
This work provides the first evidence for an adaptive role of facial colour patterns and pigmentation within Neotropical primates and demonstrates the interaction of behavioural and ecological factors in shaping one of the most outstanding facial diversities of any mammalian lineage.
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