''Paralouatta'' is a platyrrhine

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

that currently contains two extinct species of small

primate Primates are a diverse order (biology), order of mammals. They are divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include the Tarsiiformes, tarsiers and ...

s that lived on the island of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

Description

''Paralouatta varonai'' was described from a nearly complete

cranium The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, ...

from the late Quaternary in 1991. This cranium and a number of isolated teeth and postcranial bones were found in the

Cueva del Mono Cuevas or Cueva (Spanish for "''cave(s)''") may refer to: Places * Cueva de Ágreda, a municipality located in the province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain * Cuevas Bajas, a town and municipality in the province of Málaga, part of the autono ...

, a cave site in

Pinar del Río Province Pinar del Río is one of the provinces of Cuba. It is at the western end of the island of Cuba. Geography The Pinar del Río province is Cuba's westernmost province and contains one of Cuba's three main mountain ranges, the Cordillera de Guanig ...

. The initial description of the cranium included a proposal that ''Paralouatta varonai'' was a close Caribbean relative of the extant ''Alouatta'' (

howler monkey Howler monkeys (genus ''Alouatta'', monotypic in subfamily Alouattinae) are the most widespread primate genus in the Neotropics and are among the largest of the platyrrhines along with the muriquis (''Brachyteles''), the spider monkeys (''Atel ...

s) of Central and South America, but this taxonomic placement was called into question with the analysis of the dental remains. Based on shared similarities with the three other Caribbean monkeys, '' Xenothrix mcgregori'', '' Insulacebus toussaintiana'', and '' Antillothrix bernensis'', MacPhee and Horovitz have proposed that the Caribbean primates are part of a monophyletic radiation which entered the Caribbean at the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but ...

–

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

boundary. Further research confirms this assessment and places these three species in the tribe Xenotrichini. However, more recent research restores its close relationship with ''Alouatta''. The postcranial morphology of ''Paralouatta'' suggests that it was partly terrestrial, and a likely example of

island gigantism Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives. Island gigantism is one aspect of the more general Fos ...

. A second species of ''Paralouatta'' (''P. marianae'') has also been described from the

Burdigalian The Burdigalian is, in the geologic timescale, an age or stage in the early Miocene. It spans the time between 20.43 ± 0.05 Ma and 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). Preceded by the Aquitanian, the Burdigalian was the first and longest war ...

(~18 million years old) Lagunitas Formation and is the largest Neotropic primate known of that epoch.

Paleobiology

''Paralouatta'' had an estimated body mass of . Analysis of postcranial morphology suggests that ''Paralouatta'' was at least somewhat semi-terrestrial, making it the most terrestrial platyrrhine genus known.

References

External links

Mikko's Phylogeny archive
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q19689191, from2=Q1431061 †Paralouatta Prehistoric monkeys Prehistoric primate genera Burdigalian life Miocene mammals of North America Pleistocene mammals of North America Fossils of Cuba Neogene Cuba Pleistocene Caribbean Fossil taxa described in 1991