Friday, November 29, 2019

My Permanent Yellow Skin gets Empirical Corroboration: the strange case of Howler Monkey sulfur pesticide ingestion

Mantled howler monkeys typically have a type of melanin—the pigment that colors hair and skin cells—called eumelanin that is black, gray, or dark brown. In the yellow hairs, the researchers noticed the melanin had changed to a sulfur-containing type called pheomelanin, seen in animals with yellow, red, or orange tones.    The researchers believe the animals are ingesting the sulfur when they eat leaves on the trees surrounding pineapple, banana, and African palm oil farms that have been sprayed with pesticides. This sulfur may be mixing with the hair’s pigment structure and changing its overall composition, scientists suggest. In recent years, farms in Costa Rica have used a greater number of these pesticides." https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/why-are-these-costa-rican-monkeys-turning-yellow

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