We welcome the comment by Heymann & Fuzessy to our recent paper onpalm fruit colours and primate colour vision. Heymann & Fuzessy question whether palms (Arecaceae) are a good model system to understand thediversification of (trichromatic) primates. We used a macroecological and macro-evolutionary comparative framework to show that the distribution of speciesrichness for (mainland) African primates with trichromatic colour vision (i.e.species that are able to distinguish red and green) coincides with the proportionalrepresentation of African palm species with conspicuous (i.e. reddish) fruits. Moreover, both functional groups showed parallel radiations in mainland Africaduring the Neogene. By conducting a literature review of field studies of pri-mate–palm feeding interactions, Heymann & Fuzessy concluded that palmsare not the most important food source of many primates. They also foundthat palms are consumed less often in Africa and Madagascar compared to theNeotropics and Asia, and argue that‘only with solid natural history informationare comparative analyses warranted’(i.e. those conducted in).
