La vaccination est l'un des plus grands progrès réalisés en santé publique. Toutefois, malgré de nombreuses connaissances sur le système immunitaire, de nombreux pans d’ombre empêchent la conception de vaccins contre des pathogènes complexes. Pour pallier ce problème, une meilleure compréhension des modes d'action des vaccins est requise. En particulier, la plupart des vaccins nécessitent plusieurs immunisations pour induire une mémoire immunitaire adaptative au long terme, mais l'impact du délai entre primo-vaccination, induisant une mémoire primaire, et rappel(s) la restimulant pour générer une mémoire secondaire, est peu défini. De plus, la réponse immunitaire innée, induite à chaque immunisation et façonnant l'immunité adaptative, reste peu caractérisée dans ce contexte vaccinal. En vaccinant des macaques cynomolgus avec le virus de la vaccine modifiée Ankara, selon un schéma de primo-vaccination suivie d’un rappel homologue à deux mois, et en utilisant la cytométrie de masse couplée à des analyses bio-informatiques, nous avons caractérisé la réponse innée induite par chaque immunisation. Les réponses innées diffèrent entre primo-vaccination et rappel, avec induction par la primo-vaccination d’une modification phénotypique tardive des cellules innées, suggérant une meilleure capacité à répondre au rappel. De surcroît, la réduction à deux semaines du délai entre primo-vaccination et rappel abroge la mobilisation de ces cellules innées phénotypiquement modifiées et altère la qualité de la réponse humorale. En définitive, en plus de la réponse innée précoce, ce projet a mis en évidence l'induction par la primo-vaccination d'un vraisemblable entraînement inné tardif, un concept émergent traduisant la capacité de mémorisation des cellules innées via des modifications épigénétiques. Ce vraisemblable entraînement, non seulement des monocytes et cellules tueuses naturelles, mais aussi des cellules dendritiques et surprenamment des neutrophiles, est corrélé à la qualité de la mémoire immunitaire adaptative, de manière hautement dépendante du délai entre primo-vaccination et rappel. Ces résultats contribuent à ouvrir la voie vers l’optimisation rationnelle des futurs vaccins, via l'optimisation des calendriers vaccinaux et la valorisation de l'entraînement inné. / Vaccination is one of the best achievements made in public health. However, designing vaccines against complex pathogens is currently challenging. The immune system is indeed uncompletely characterized, despite large amount of accumulated knowledges. A better understanding of vaccine-induced immunity is then required to optimize vaccine design. In particular, while most vaccines require several immunizations to induce a long-lasting adaptive immune memory, little is known on the impact of the delay beween the prime inducing a primary memory and the boost restimulating it to induce a secondary memory. Also, the innate immunity induced by each immunization and shaping the adaptative immunity is poorly characterized in this vaccine context.We studied the innate immune responses in cynomolgus macaques immunized with the modified vaccinia virus Ankara, following an homologous prime-boost vaccination at two months apart. We applied mass cytometry and bioinformatic analyses to characterize the innate response induced by each immunization. We showed that prime and boost vaccination triggered distinct innate responses. Actually, prime induced late phenotypic modifications of innate cells. These phenotypic changes suggest a stronger ability to react to the boost. Moreover, reducing the delay between prime and boost to two weeks impeded the mobilization of these phenotypically modified innate cells, and qualitatively altered humoral response.In conclusion, beyond the early innate responses, these results highlight the late induction by the prime of "likely trained" innate cells. This emerging concept corresponds to the ability of innate cells to display memory features based on epigenetic modifications. This "likely training" occured not only on monocytes and NK cells, but also on dendritic cells and strikingly on neutrophils. It was deeply connected with adaptive immune memory establishment, in a prime-boost delay dependant fashion. These findings contribute to pave the way towards to the rationale design of future vaccines, via vaccine schedule optimization and harnessment of innate training.

No description available.

From a Darwinian perspective, both history and environment are causal factors for change in animal social behaviour. Because behaviour leaves no fossil evidence researchers have focused on how social systems help animals and humans adapt to their current environments and have only been able to make tentative suggestions about how such systems may have evolved. However, a new theoretical framework, based on Darwin’s insights, allows phylogenetic relatedness to be incorporated into comparative analyses to discover the ancestral states of social behaviour and the ultimate drivers of change in human and primate societies. This thesis uses these new methods to investigate the history and drivers of change in human and primate sociality and proposes a new model of primate social evolution. Analyses of mating systems suggest that social monogamy in humans and other primates is the result of infanticide risk brought about by life history changes. These methods were also able to reveal how changes in inheritance rules to matriliny among Bantu-speaking societies, contributed to a switch to matrilocal residence, which in turn contributed to a change from polygynous marriage to monogamy. Cultural history effects change in both descent and residence patterns, while geographical proximity also affects descent, but residence and environmental factors drive changes in marriage. This approach may provide a way for the various schools for the study of human and primate social behaviour to collaborate more closely and provide ultimate answers to the drivers of change in human society.

Es wurde wiederholt gezeigt, dass enge, affiliative soziale Beziehungen (im Folgenden “soziale Beziehungen”) äußerst wichtig für die Gesundheit und das Wohlbefinden des Menschen sind. Eine steigende Zahl von Befunden deutet darauf hin, dass nicht-menschliche Arten Sozialbeziehungen führen, die wichtige Eigenschaften menschlicher sozialer Beziehungen teilen, insbesondere Differenzierung in Stärke, Stabilität und Gleichwertigkeit, und dass diese Beziehungen eine wichtige Rolle für die Fitness und das Wohlbefinden dieser Arten spielen. Allerdings wurden diese Arbeiten von einigen stark kritisiert und es wird argumentiert, die scheinbaren Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen menschlichen und nicht-menschlichen sozialen Beziehungen könnten Begleiterscheinungen anderer, einfacherer Prozesse sein. Zudem wurden nicht alle Aspekte der vorgeschlagenen, gemeinsamen Eigenschaften vollständig mit den menschlichen Entsprechungen verglichen. Untersuchungen nicht-menschlicher sozialer Beziehungen werden außerdem grundsätzlich durch einen Mangel an Übereinstimmung darüber, wie nicht-menschliche soziale Beziehungen am besten quantitativ zu bewerten sind, erschwert. Das allgemeine Ziel dieser Doktorarbeit war, die Eigenschaften sozialer Beziehungen zwischen frei lebenden weiblichen Assam-Makaken zu ermitteln und sorgfältig zu prüfen, inwiefern diese den Eigenschaften enger sozialer Beziehungen zwischen Menschen und anderen nichtmenschlichen Arten gleichen. Ich habe mich im Speziellen mit den Kritiken und den Wissenslücken hinsichtlich nicht-menschlicher sozialer Beziehungen befasst. Des Weiteren habe ich die neuen Möglichkeiten, die die soziale Netzwerkanalyse bietet, um soziales Verhalten zu messen, beurteilt und genutzt, sowie geprüft, ob diese Messmethoden unsere Bewertung nichtmenschlicher Beziehungen verbessern können. Die Daten dieser Arbeit stammen von einer einzelnen Gruppe Assam-Makaken, die in ihrem natürlichen Lebensraum im Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary (16°5′–35′N, 101°20′–55′O) in der Provinz Chaiyaphum im Nordosten Thailands leben. Das Schutzgebiet umfasst 1573km² und ist Teil des ca. 6500 km² umfassenden, zusammenhängenden Western Forest Complex. Die Daten wurden in zwei einjährigen Beobachtungszeiträumen erhoben (Zeitraum 1: Oktober 2007 – September 2008; Zeitraum 2: Mai 2010 – April 2011). Während dieser Zeit bestand die Gruppe aus insgesamt 49-53 Individuen, davon 12 adulten Weibchen im ersten und 15 adulten Weibchen im zweiten Beobachtungszeitraum. Alle adulten Weibchen wurden regelmäßig mittels der Fokustiermethode beobachtet, währenddessen alle sozialen Interaktionen kontinuierlich und allgemeine Aktivitäten nach einer zeitabhängigen Regel aufgezeichnet wurden. Insgesamt wurden über 2100 Stunden an Verhaltensbeobachtungen gesammelt. Die Analyse dieser Daten zeigte, dass die sozialen Beziehungen weiblicher Assam- Makaken wesentliche Charakteristika enger sozialer Beziehungen von Menschen teilen. Wie beim Menschen unterschieden sich die Sozialbeziehungen weiblicher Assammakaken deutlich in ihrer Stärke, wobei Weibchen dazu neigen nur wenige überdurchschnittlich enge soziale Beziehungen zu bilden. Außerdem blieben soziale Beziehungen über ein ganzes Jahr stabil, trotz signifikanter Veränderungen in der Zeit, die Weibchen für andere Verhaltensweisen, wie z.B. Fressen und Ruhen, aufwandten, wie sie mit Veränderungen im weiblichen Reproduktionszyklus einhergehen. Weiterhin konnte gezeigt werden, dass die sozialen Beziehungen über mehrere Jahre stabil bestehen bleiben. Ich konnte nachweisen, dass Weibchen Leistungen balanciert austauschen, allerdings wurden die Art und der Zeitrahmen, über den Leistungen ausgetauscht wurden, im Gegensatz zu sozialen Beziehungen beim Menschen nicht durch die Stärke sozialer Beziehungen beeinflusst. Der Einsatz der sozialen Netzwerkanalyse in meiner Arbeit zeigte, dass diese nicht nur nützliche Messwerte liefert, um die Struktur der sozialen Beziehungen weiblicher Assam-Makaken zu quantifizieren, sondern auch andere, potentiell nützliche Messwerte für zukünftige Studien nicht-menschlicher sozialer Beziehungen. Diese Ergebnisse liefern einen wertvollen Beitrag für unser Verständnis sowohl nichtmenschlicher als auch menschlicher Sozialbeziehungen. Sie geben uns einen tieferen Einblick in das Sozialleben von Assam-Makaken im Allgemeinen, in dem gezeigt wird, dass feste soziale Beziehungen eine wichtige Größe des weiblichen Soziallebens dieser Art sind, während die Rangordnung eine untergeordnete Rolle im weiblichen Verhalten spielt. Sie unterstützen den “Ansatz der wertvollen Beziehungen”, der genutzt wird, um nicht-menschliche soziale Beziehungen zu verstehen, und nicht den Ansatz der, von einigen vorgeschlagenen, biologischen Markttheorie. Schließlich haben diese Ergebnisse Auswirkungen auf unser Verständnis des evolutionären Ursprungs menschlicher sozialer Beziehungen, insbesondere für ihren ursprünglichen funktionalen Nutzen, da sie Hinweise darauf geben, dass soziale Beziehungen nicht-menschlicher Arten wichtige Eigenschaften mit engen zwischenmenschlichen Beziehungen gemeinsam haben. In Zukunft können wir unser Verständnis nicht-menschlicher Sozialbeziehungen vertiefen, indem weiter untersucht wird, in welchen Eigenschaften sich diese sozialen Beziehungen ähneln. Zeitgleich sollten wir versuchen, Eigenschaften, die insbesondere für nicht-menschliche Arten von größerer Bedeutung sein könnten, zu ermitteln und zu untersuchen. Schließlich sollten wir beginnen, unsere Aufmerksamkeit auf die vielen schwachen und dynamischen sozialen Beziehungen zurichten, die in Gruppen nicht-menschlicher Arten existieren, und ihren potentiellen Nutzen zu erforschen.

The database on hand preferences in non-human primates provides inconsistent and inconclusive findings, and is plagued by gaps and methodological issues. I studied hand preferences in the bonobo, which is a very interesting model for investigating evolutionary hypotheses on human handedness. There are few previous data on bonobos and they are from small samples and for relatively simple tasks. I studied a large sample of 94 bonobos in three zoos and one sanctuary, on a variety of actions. Five studies were performed to record: 1. hand use for spontaneous daily actions (non-social). 2. hand use for the tube task , a task that requires a manipulative bimanual coordinated precise action. 3. hand use for using a stick as a probe ( termite fishing ). 4. hand use for spontaneous social actions and gestures, recorded during their social interactions (intra-specific) and during interactions with humans (inter-specific). 5. hand use for induced begging gestures (begging for food from the observer). The results show significant manual laterality in almost all the behaviours studied. The hand preferences were present on an individual basis. The numbers of right-handed and left-handed individuals were similar, indicating no group-level bias, for any of the actions studied. There was no significant effect of the settings, rearing history, sex and age (except in study 2 where adults were more right-handed than younger subjects). I examined different factors that have been proposed as selective pressures for the emergence of handedness. Laterality was influenced by: postural demands (posture, activity of the other hand), precision, grip type, manipulation or bimanual coordination, tool-use, throwing, communication. Notably, the laterality was very marked for the tube task , the termite fishing task and the begging experiment, which suggests that the factors involved in these tasks could be important factors regarding laterality.

The importance of tropical forests for global diversity and ecosystem function is well established in scientific literature, but is undermined by gaps in our knowledge of tropical ecosystems and species. Primates play important functional roles in these ecosystems, and despite constituting one of the most well-recognised taxa in the world, many species remain poorly studied. The Area de Conservación Regional Communal Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo (ACRCTT), located in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon, harbours one of the most diverse primate assemblages in the world and presents an ideal opportunity for the study of primate communities and mechanisms of their coexistence. Previous research has recorded the presence of an atypically coloured morph of monk saki monkeys (Pithecia monachus, sensu Marsh 2014) living in sympatry with a population of burnished sakis (Pithecia inusta, sensu Marsh 2014) in the reserve. In this study, the behavioural ecology of this potentially undescribed morph of saki monkey is described, using continuous focal data collected during the early wet season in the ACRCTT. The sakis were most often encountered in multi-adult groups and in the upper forest strata. The observed feeding strategies suggest that fruits and/or seeds constitute the sakis' primary food source in the wet season, although arthropods were also ingested during a large proportion of feeding records. Sex differences in behavioural patterns provide support for a difference in male and female investment in group defence. As only the monk saki morph was encountered during the study, the potential for seasonal habitat differentiation between the saki populations at the ACRCTT is discussed. A survey of primates in flooded and non-flooded forest areas at the ACRCTT was also conducted, in which nine of the 14 primate species recorded at the ACRCTT were encountered. Significant differences in the vertical distribution of primate groups provide evidence for vertical stratification in the ACRCTT primate community. This study contributes to previous research on the poorly-studied Pithecia genus, and provides insights into the mechanisms of niche differentiation between Pithecia and other primates.

<p>For primates, and other arboreal mammals, adopting suspensory locomotion represents one of the strategies an animal can use to prevent toppling off a thin support during arboreal movement and foraging. While numerous studies have reported the incidence of suspensory locomotion in a broad phylogenetic sample of mammals, little research has explored what mechanical transitions must occur in order for an animal to successfully adopt suspensory locomotion. Additionally, many primate species are capable of adopting a highly specialized form of suspensory locomotion referred to as arm-swinging, but few scenarios have been posited to explain how arm-swinging initially evolved. This study takes a comparative experimental approach to explore the mechanics of below branch quadrupedal locomotion in primates and other mammals to determine whether above and below branch quadrupedal locomotion represent neuromuscular mirrors of each other, and whether the patterns below branch quadrupedal locomotion are similar across taxa. Also, this study explores whether the nature of the flexible coupling between the forelimb and hindlimb observed in primates is a uniquely primate feature, and investigates the possibility that this mechanism could be responsible for the evolution of arm-swinging. </p><p> To address these research goals, kinetic, kinematic, and spatiotemporal gait variables were collected from five species of primate (Cebus capucinus, Daubentonia madagascariensis, Lemur catta, Propithecus coquereli, and Varecia variegata) walking quadrupedally above and below branches. Data from these primate species were compared to data collected from three species of non-primate mammals (Choloepus didactylus, Pteropus vampyrus, and Desmodus rotundus) and to three species of arm-swinging primate (Hylobates moloch, Ateles fusciceps, and Pygathrix nemaeus) to determine how varying forms of suspensory locomotion relate to each other and across taxa. </p><p> From the data collected in this study it is evident the specialized gait characteristics present during above branch quadrupedal locomotion in primates are not observed when walking below branches. Instead, gait mechanics closely replicate the characteristic walking patterns of non-primate mammals, with the exception that primates demonstrate an altered limb loading pattern during below branch quadrupedal locomotion, in which the forelimb becomes the primary propulsive and weight-bearing limb; a pattern similar to what is observed during arm-swinging. It is likely that below branch quadrupedal locomotion represents a “mechanical release” from the challenges of moving on top of thin arboreal supports. Additionally, it is possible, that arm-swinging could have evolved from an anatomically-generalized arboreal primate that began to forage and locomote below branches. During these suspensory bouts, weight would have been shifted away from the hindlimbs towards forelimbs, and as the frequency of these boats increased the reliance of the forelimb as the sole form of weight support would have also increased. This form of functional decoupling may have released the hindlimbs from their weight-bearing role during suspensory locomotion, and eventually arm-swinging would have replaced below branch quadrupedal locomotion as the primary mode of suspensory locomotion observed in some primate species. This study provides the first experimental evidence supporting the hypothetical link between below branch quadrupedal locomotion and arm-swinging in primates.</p> / Dissertation

Primates who disperse from their natal group may shape their adult stable gut microbiome through physical contact and shared environments with their new group members. However, it is possible that individuals retain the dominant microbiome composition that they developed as an infant in their natal group even after joining their new group, due to a combination of genetic inheritance and exposure to their natal group environment. Microbial exposure during early life, before an immune system has been developed, can exert strong selection on a developing individual, in effect creating a selection bottleneck. Therefore, the environmental signals transmitted from mother to infant are critical in developing an infant’s immunocompetence. Determining what adaptations take place in an individual’s gut microbiota during their life could help determine the maternal importance of gut microbe transmissions which may be essential to the evolutionary success of a species. We studied Eulemur rubriventer (red-bellied lemurs) who live in family groups. We tested whether individuals now living in different social groups as adults overlap in microbe composition, and if areas of overlap are distinct compared with unrelated individuals. We also tested whether the gut microbiomes of co-residents (dispersed adult group-mates) would be more similar than that of individuals living in different groups. Using census and genetic data, we determined the social group membership and relatedness of 15 individuals in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. Quantitative real-time PCR and Microbial 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing indicated that E. rubriventer kinship accounted for just 2.4% of variability in gut microbiome diversity. Our findings indicate that host adult social group explained 25% of the variation in composition of E. rubriventer microbiomes. Additional research incorporating an increased sample size to include additional kin dyads is necessary to fully understand the influence of genetic kinship and early life colonization on the GI microbiome. If initial microbial colonizing species are retained in adults, this demonstrates that early life colonization can persist through adulthood and perhaps preserve important microbial species across larger evolutionary time scales.

Membros de um grupo social de primatas diurnos reúnem-se ao final do dia num local apropriado para passar a noite. O local de dormida é denominado sítio de dormir e pode consistir em uma ou mais árvores. Hipóteses adaptativas têm sido sugeridas para explicar preferências por árvores e sítios de dormir. O risco de predação tem sido apontado como uma das principais pressões seletivas que afetam a escolha de árvores e sítios de dormir. A estratégia de escolha de sítio de dormir e de árvore de dormir, para um mesmo grupo de primatas, pode diferir. Assim, o sítio de dormir pode estar localizado próximo às fontes alimentares, facilitando o forrageamento pela manhã e as árvores usadas nesse sítio podem proporcionar conforto e segurança, pela viscosidade e presença de galhos horizontais e largos. Encontramos, para um grupo de macacos-prego, no Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, SP, evidências de seleção por características de árvores e sítios de dormir. As espécies de árvores mais usadas como árvore de dormir foram Copaifera langsdorfii e Attalea dubia, sendo a segunda relacionada com noites de baixa temperatura ambiente e do vento. Houve também preferência por árvores altas e com grande DAP, por sítios localizados entre 820 e 840 metros de altitude e em encostas e topos de morro. Embora tenhamos encontrado evidências de seletividade para árvore e sítio de dormir, os sítios e árvores preferidos estão distribuídos por toda a área de uso e são pouco reutilizados. Como conseqüência, o grupo dorme perto da área explorada para forrageamento durante o dia. Assim, a localização do sítio de dormir não parece afetar a rota diária do grupo. / Group members of diurnal primates meet at the end of the day in a suitable area to spend the night. This location is called sleeping site and may consist of one or more trees. Ultimate hypotheses have been suggested to explain primate preferences for sleeping trees and sleeping sites. The risk of predation has been identified as one of the main selective pressures that affect the choice of sleeping trees and sleeping sites. The strategy of sleeping tree and sleeping site selection, by a single group of primates, may differ. Thus, the sleeping site can be located close to food sources, facilitating the foraging in the morning and the trees used on this site can guarantee comfort and safety, due to viscosity and presence of horizontal large branches. Studying a group of tufted capuchin monkeys, at Carlos Botelho State Park, SP, we found evidence of selection of sleeping trees and sleeping sites features. The most commonly used species of trees as sleeping trees were Copaifera langsdorfii and Attalea dubia, the second was related to nights with low environment and wind temperatures. There is also a preference for high trees with large DBH, and for sites located at 820 and 840 metres, on hillsides and hilltops. Although we have found evidence of selectivity for sleeping trees and sleeping sites, the sites and preferred trees occur throughout the monkeys home range and are not normally reused. As a consequence, the group sleep near the area explored during daily foraging. Therefore, the sleeping site location does not seem to affect the animals daily route.

A modularidade é uma propriedade característica que sistemas biológicos exibem em relação à distribuição de interações entre seus elementos constituintes; neste contexto, um módulo é um subconjunto de elementos que interagem entre si mais do que com outros subconjuntos. Em relação aos sistemas morfológicos, tais propriedades referem-se geralmente à estrutura do componente linear do mapa genótipo/fenótipo; no entanto, as interações genéticas, ontogenéticas e funcionais que produzem fenótipos são descritas de forma adequada através de dinâmicas não-lineares, e uma apreciação completa da complexidade destas interações é necessária para a compreensão das propriedades variacionais do fenótipo. Ademais, dados avanços metodológicos na área da morfometria, é possível escolher diferentes maneiras de representar a variação morfológica, e as diferenças entre as representações podem impactar inferências feitas sobre estas propriedades variacionais. A presente tese tem como objetivo explorar a relação entre representações morfométricas e a caracterização das propriedades variacionais, focada na análise comparativa de tais propriedades em uma escala macroevolutiva; Primatas Antropóides são utilizados como modelo, dada a disponibilidade de uma grande base de dados de mensurações cranianas destes organismo. Esta relação foi avaliada sob três perspectivas diferentes. Em primeiro lugar, estima-se taxas de erro associadas aos testes de hipótese que descrevem padrões de modularidade, relacionadas com três representações morfométricas distintas; tal avaliação é também associada à exploração de um subconjunto da base de dados utilizada aqui, levando-se em consideração a dinâmica de interações ontogenéticas que produzem o crânio dos Antropóides. Os resultados deste capítulo implicam que uma dessas representações, resíduos de Procrustes, não são capazes de detectar padrões de modularidade neste contexto, considerando suas propriedades matemáticas específicas. Outras duas representações, distâncias entre marcos anatômicos e variáveis locais de forma, produzem resultados semelhantes, que estão diretamente associados à dinâmica de desenvolvimento, e as diferenças que elas apresentam são consistentes com suas diferenças principais; taxas de erro para os testes sobre as duas representações também são aceitáveis. O próximo capítulo trata da comparação entre estas duas representações no que diz respeito a estas diferentes propriedades, focado em estimar relações alométricas associadas às variáveis locais de forma e a relação entre estas estimativas e os padrões de modularidade estimados para distâncias entre marcos anatômicos. Os resultados encontrados enfatizam que os padrões de modularidade observados em distâncias entre marcos são consequência da alometria; linhagens como Homo e Gorilla, que apresentam padrões distintos de modularidade para as distâncias entre marcos estão associados a mudanças substanciais nas relações alométricas dos caracteres cranianos. O último capítulo explora a estrutura filogenética de mudanças nas propriedades variacionais fenotípicas na diversificação de Anthropoidea, considerando apenas variáveis de forma locais, uma vez que este capítulo também visa reforçar os resultados anteriores obtidos a partir de distâncias entre marcos, considerando-se um tipo diferente de representação morfométrica. Este capítulo muda o foco de testes a respeito de padrões de modularidade definidos a priori em direção a estimar a incerteza relacionada à estrutura de matrizes de covariância, decomposta sobre a filogenia de Anthropoidea. Os resultados obtidos demonstram que as mudanças na estrutura de covariância nesta linhagem são localizadas nas mesmas regiões do crânio ao longo de toda a história evolutiva do grupo, enquanto outras regiões mantêm associações estáveis. Assim, quando se considera as diferentes propriedades de representações morfométricas cuidadosamente, inferências feitas a partir de tais representações sobre propriedades variacionais são de fato compatíveis / Modularity is a characteristic property biological systems exhibit regarding the distribution of interactions between their composing elements; in this context, a module is a subset of elements which interact more among themselves than with other subsets. Regarding morphological systems, such property usually refers to the structure of the linear component of the genotype/phenotype map; however, the genetic, developmental, and functional interactions that produce phenotypes are often best described by non-linear dynamics, and a full appreciation of the complexity of such interactions is necessary for understanding phenotypic variational properties. Furthermore, given methodological advances in the field of morphometrics, one may choose different ways to represent morphological variation, and differences between representations may impact inferences made regarding variational properties. The present dissertation aims at exploring the relationship between morphometric representations and the characterization of variational properties, focusing on the comparative analysis of such properties on a macroevolutionary timeframe; Anthropoid Primates are used as a model lineage, given the availability of a large database of skull measurements. This relationship was evaluated under three different perspectives. First, an estimation of the error rates associated with tests for hypothesis that describe modularity patterns related to three different morphometric representations; such evaluation is also associated with an exploration of a subset of the database used here, considering the dynamical properties of developmental interactions that produce the Anthropoid skull. The results of this chapter imply that one of such representations, Procrustes residuals, fails to capture modularity patterns in this setting, considering its particular mathematical underpinnings. Other two representations, interlandmark distances and local shape variables, produce similar results which are directly associated with developmental dynamics, and the differences they exhibit are consistent with their different properties; error rates for tests over both representations are also acceptable. The next chapter deals with comparing these two representations with respect to these different properties, focusing on estimating allometric relationships over local shape variables and the relationship between such estimates and modularity patterns estimated for interlandmark distances. The results found stress out that modularity patterns observed in interlandmark distances are a consequence of allometry; lineages such as Homo and Gorilla, which exhibit distinct modularity patterns in interlandmark distances are associated with substantial changes in allometric relationships for skull traits. The last chapter explores the phylogenetic structure of changes in phenotypic variational properties across Anthropoid diversification, considering local shape variables alone, since this chapter also aims at reinforcing previous results obtained from interlandmark distances, considering a different type of morphometric representation. This chapter shifts the focus from testing a priori-defined modularity patterns to estimating the uncertainty related to covariance matrix structure decomposed over the Anthropoid phylogeny. The results obtained demonstrate that changes in covariance structure on this lineage are localized in the same skull regions across the entire evolutionary history of Anthropoidea, while other regions maintain stable associations. Thus, when one considers the different properties of morphometric representations carefully, inferences made from such representations regarding variational properties are in fact compatible