It seems that the group of mammals most closely related to humans is vital for the life, preservation and regeneration of tropical forests: primates are the ones in charge of dispersing tree seeds throughout the lands.

New studies have show that the health of tropical forests and primates have a very strong bond, as it is prosimians and simians who take on the responsibility of spreading tree seeds, plus the fact that they can also influence the genetic kinship structure of the plants they end up using as food sources, says a new study that crosses two different disciplines.

The latest discovery regarding tropical forests and primates came from a study published on Trees magazine, according to Science Daily. The paper, named "Primate seed dispersal leaves spatial genetic imprint throughout subsequent life stages of the Neotropical tree Parkia panurensis," was released by researchers from the German Primate center, where primatologists joined in specialists in plant genetics to see how different species dispersed seeds.

To figure out the relation between tropical forests and primates, the researchers studied the habits of two species of New World monkeys from the Peruvian Amazon, at a place called Estación Biológica Quebrada Blanco. Correlating to their observation of the monkeys, they studied how these primates affected the dispersal of seeds of a legume tree of the area: the monkeys studied were Moustached and Brown-mantled tamarins.

The fruits of the legume trees studied contained 16 to 23 seeds, all of which were surrounded by edible gum; the monkeys ate the gum and swallowed the sees.

"With the help of genetic analyses of the DNA found in the seed coat, which is of maternal origin, we could make an exact assignment of the corresponding 'mother tree' for the seeds," said one of the study's researchers, Eckhard Heymann, in a press release, according to Science World Report. "This allowed us to determine how far Parkia seeds were dispersed by the monkeys. With the help of analysis from microsatellites, short repeated DNA sequences, we were able to identify genetic similarities of individual trees."

While the tropical forests' primates relation is very warm and cozy due to the fact that they spread a lot of tree seeds around, other animals such as bats and birds are also among the main responsible parties for keeping forests healthy.