Explore 85 Years of Primate Research
Visualize lineage, kinship, and skeletal data of over 11,000 rhesus monkeys from Cayo Santiago.
An Application for Analysts
CSViewer for Analysts is a computer application that provides user-friendly tools for researchers to access an integrated database of the 11000 Rhesus Monkeys raised on Cayo Santiago, known as the “Monkey Island” off Puerto Rico for over 85 years. It provides interactive matrilineal or patrilineal family trees and kinship trees. Users can use a multitude of menus to explore family lines, social groups, time spans, as well as dimension measures and photos recently collected from skeletal sets derived from the CS Colony.
The Cayo Santiago Colony
Cayo Santiago, also known as the “Monkey Island” is off Puerto Rico.
The CS Rhesus colony was established in 1938 with 409 macaques; around 1,700 monkeys currently live on the island. Animals have been provisioned with food and fresh water since 1974.
It is managed by the Caribbean Primate Research Center (CPRC) through NIH grants.
Building An Integrative Database
Funded by NSF grants in 2019, a collaborative effort started by a team with expertise in anthropology, biology, biomedical sciences, data and computer sciences. In this new project, bone dimensions, bone mineral density (BMD), body mass, tooth eruption, and observable disease conditions of the rhesus monkey have been collected. These new data have been incorporated with existing records on each monkey’s sex, birth and death dates, parentage information, and social group assignment to create a comprehensive database. The ultimate goal is to create a Knowledge Model based on the valuable data and data analytics/machine learning tools to be customized.
What is CSViewer For?
Using CSViewer for Analysts, researchers can access genealogy and social group information about the Cayo Santiago rhesus colony, as well as bone dimension measures recently collected from the CS derived skeletal sets curated at the CPRC museum. Users can first explore the visuals provided in CSViewer for revealing a retrospective view of the CS population. These visuals include the matrilineal and patrilineal family trees, headcounts by family by group, and availability of bone specimens by family and by pedigree. Datasets can then be selected for specific research projects with references to these “big pictures”.
Want to see the application in action?
We have recorded an entire video to demonstrate the user experience with a case study! Head to the contact page and let us know that you’re interested.