They belong to the family of Callitrichids, and are known as New World Monkeys. They are found throughout the forests of Central and South America, utilizing all levels of the forest,they live in the rain forests, gallery forests, dry forests and savanah woodlands, and usually only descend to the ground in search of prey. They travel by running and hopping on large branches and making quick horizontal lunges.
Marmosets are distributed mainly from the Amazon Basin, south of the Amazon River in Brazil, east to the Brazilian Atlantic coast and extending over into Eastern Bolivia.
Callitrichids' natural diet consists of fruit and flowers, as well as frogs, snails, and lizards. They also feast on a variety of insects. Plant exudates and gums are also consummed, the marmost has dentition adapted for gouging holes in plants in order to get to the gum. The digits have curved claws, except on the big toe which has a flat nail. The curved claw adaption assists in horizontal jumping by enabling them to run up the sheer side of a tree. It also assists in grooming. Their body length is 225 - 309mm, the tail is 279 - 406mm and they weigh between 255 and 454 grams.
Marmosets live in pairs or family groups in which only the dominant pair breeds. The fathers participate in the rearing of the offspring and help by carrying the youngsters about and returning them to their mother for feeding. This way the mother can have a break. Territory is marked by rubbing glands located either on their chest or anogenital region against an object.
Marmosets have a V-shaped mandible with incicors that are extended and nearly level with the canines, resulting in a cup or scoop-like shape, these teeth are extremely sharp and can cause quite a bit of damage if one is bitten. This feature enables the marmoset to gnaw holes in order to gain access to tree exudates.
