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During the last 40 years, common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) have been dramatically used as laboratory animal models for human diseases. Because of their small size, rapid maturation and high fertility potential in captivity, these primates have advantages as experimental animals over Old World monkeys. Using the marmosets, the research for toxicology, pharmacology, neurology and brain study could be actively. Callithrix jacchus belongs to the Callitricidae with New World Monkeys. They are successfully speciated as 28 species, 4 genera in tropical forest of South and Central America. The genus Callimico has been disputed for a long thime concerning phylogentic relationship. Morpological phyletic studies have generally placed Callimico as the basal member of the Callitricidae, whereas genetic studies have placed Callimico somewhere within the Callitricidae, not basal to this clade. Here we summarized the usage of common marmoset as experimental animal and its phylogenetic relationship among New World monkeys.
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