Abstract
Thirty years ago virtually everything known about primate color vision derived from psychophysical studies of normal and color-defective humans and from physiological investigations of the visual system of the macaque monkey, that most popular of human surrogates for this purpose. The years since have witnessed much progress toward the goal of understanding this remarkable feature of primate vision. Among the advances, investigations conducted on a wide range of non-human primate species have proven particularly valuable in revealing early-stage mechanisms, and they have been central in detailing the relationships between opsin genes, cone photopigments, and color vision. This approach has provided insights into the evolution of color vision and served to reawaken interest in linking basic features of visual biology to the ecology of primate color vision. In this talk I summarize and illustrate some of these advances.