New World monkeys are the five families of

primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

s that are found in the tropical regions of

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Callitrichidae The Callitrichidae (also called Arctopitheci or Hapalidae) are a family of New World monkeys, including marmosets, tamarins, and lion tamarins. At times, this group of animals has been regarded as a subfamily, called the Callitrichinae, of th ...

Cebidae The Cebidae are one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised. Extant members are the capuchin and squirrel monkeys. These species are found throughout tropical and subtropical South and Central America. Characteristics Cebid m ...

Aotidae Night monkeys, also known as owl monkeys or douroucoulis (), are nocturnal New World monkeys of the genus ''Aotus'', the only member of the family (biology), family Aotidae (). The genus comprises eleven species which are found across Panama an ...

Pitheciidae The Pitheciidae () are one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised. Formerly, they were included in the family Atelidae. The family includes the titis, saki monkeys and uakaris. Most species are native to the Amazon region of ...

, and

Atelidae The Atelidae are one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised. It was formerly included in the family Cebidae. Atelids are generally larger monkeys; the family includes the howler, spider, woolly, and woolly spider monkeys (t ...

. The five families are ranked together as the Ceboidea (), the only extant superfamily in the

parvorder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...

Platyrrhini (). Platyrrhini is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

for "broad nosed", and their noses are flatter than those of other simians, with sideways-facing nostrils. Monkeys in the family Atelidae, such as the

spider monkey Spider monkeys are New World monkeys belonging to the genus ''Ateles'', part of the subfamily Atelinae, family Atelidae. Like other atelines, they are found in tropical forests of Central and South America, from southern Mexico to Brazil. The g ...

, are the only primates to have

prehensile tail A prehensile tail is the tail of an animal that has Adaptation (biology), adapted to grasp or hold objects. Fully Prehensility, prehensile tails can be used to hold and manipulate objects, and in particular to aid arboreal creatures in finding and ...

s. New World monkeys' closest relatives are the other

simian The simians, anthropoids, or higher primates are an infraorder (Simiiformes ) of primates containing all animals traditionally called monkeys and apes. More precisely, they consist of the parvorders New World monkey, Platyrrhini (New World mon ...

s, the

Catarrhini The parvorder Catarrhini (known commonly as catarrhine monkeys, Old World anthropoids, or Old World monkeys) consists of the Cercopithecoidea and apes (Hominoidea). In 1812, Geoffroy grouped those two groups together and established the name ...

("down-nosed"), comprising

Old World monkey Old World monkeys are primates in the family Cercopithecidae (). Twenty-four genera and 138 species are recognized, making it the largest primate family. Old World monkey genera include baboons (genus '' Papio''), red colobus (genus '' Piliocolob ...

s and

ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and counting humans are found global ...

s. New World monkeys descend from African simians that colonized South America, a line that split off about 40 million years ago.

Evolutionary history

About 40 million years ago, the

Simiiformes The simians, anthropoids, or higher primates are an infraorder (Simiiformes ) of primates containing all animals traditionally called monkeys and apes. More precisely, they consist of the parvorders Platyrrhini (New World monkeys) and Ca ...

infraorder split into the parvorders Platyrrhini (New World monkeys) and

(apes and

s) somewhere on the African continent. Platyrrhini are currently conjectured to have dispersed to

on a raft of vegetation across the Atlantic Ocean during the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

epoch, possibly via several intermediate now submerged islands. Several other groups of animals made the same journey across the Atlantic, notably including

caviomorph Caviomorpha is the rodent parvorder that unites all New World hystricognaths. It is supported by both fossil and molecular evidence. The Caviomorpha was for a time considered to be a separate order outside the Rodentia, but is now accepted as ...

rodents. At the time the New World monkeys dispersed to South America, the

Isthmus of Panama The Isthmus of Panama, historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North America, North and South America. The country of Panama is located on the i ...

had not yet formed, so

ocean current An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours, sh ...

s, unlike today, favoured westward dispersal, the climate was quite different, and the width of the Atlantic Ocean was less than the present width by about a third (possibly less, based on the current estimate of the Atlantic

mid-ocean ridge formation process A mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of about and rises about above the deepest portion of an ocean basin. This feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a div ...

es spreading rate of ). The non-platyrrhini '' Ucayalipithecus'' of Amazonian Peru who might have rafted across the Atlantic between ~35–32 million years ago, are nested within the extinct

Parapithecoidea Parapithecoidea is an extinct superfamily of primates which lived in the Eocene and Oligocene periods in Egypt. In some classifications all Parapithecoidea are placed within the family Parapithecidae. Seiffert ''et al.'' (2010) propose that Parap ...

from the

of Afro-Arabia, suggesting that there were at least two separate dispersal events of primates to South America, '' Parvimico'' and '' Perupithecus'' from Peru appear to be at the base of the Platyrrhini, as are '' Szalatavus'', ''

Lagonimico ''Lagonimico'' is an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Middle Miocene (Laventan in the South American land mammal ages; 13.8 to 11.8 Ma). Its remains have been found at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in the Honda Group of Co ...

'', and ''

Canaanimico ''Canaanimico'' is an extinct genus of medium-sized New World monkeys from the Late Oligocene (approximately 26.5 Ma, Deseadan in the SALMA classification) fossiliferous fluvio-lacustrine Chambira Formation of the Ucayali Basin in Amazonian P ...

''. Possible evidence for a third transatlantic dispersal event comes from a fossil molar belonging to ''

Ashaninkacebus simpsoni ''Ashaninkacebus'' is an extinct genus of eosimiid that lived around the time of the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Distribution Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-liv ...

'', which has strong affinities with stem anthropoid primates of South Asian origin, the

Eosimiidae Eosimiidae is the possible family of extinct primates believed to be the earliest simians. Taxonomy When they were discovered, the possibility that eosimiids were outside and ancestral to simians was considered (Culotta 1992), but subsequent ...

. The chromosomal content of the ancestor species appears to have been 2n = 54.de Oliveira EH, Neusser M, Müller S (2012). "Chromosome evolution in New World Monkeys (Platyrrhini)." ''Cytogenetic and Genome Research'' https://doi.org/10.1159/000339296 In extant species, the 2n value varies from 16 in the

titi monkey The titis, or titi monkeys, are New World monkeys of the subfamily Callicebinae, which contains three extant genera: ''Cheracebus'', ''Callicebus'', and ''Plecturocebus.'' This subfamily also contains the extinct genera '' Miocallicebus, Homun ...

to 62 in the

woolly monkey The woolly monkeys are the genus ''Lagothrix'' of New World monkeys, usually placed in the family Atelidae. Both species in this genus originate from the rainforests of South America. They have prehensile tails and live in relatively large soci ...

. A

Bayesian Thomas Bayes ( ; c. 1701 – 1761) was an English statistician, philosopher, and Presbyterian minister. Bayesian ( or ) may be either any of a range of concepts and approaches that relate to statistical methods based on Bayes' theorem Bayes ...

estimate of the most recent common ancestor of the extant species has a 95%

credible interval In Bayesian statistics, a credible interval is an interval used to characterize a probability distribution. It is defined such that an unobserved parameter value has a particular probability \gamma to fall within it. For example, in an experime ...

of -.Perez SI, Tejedor MF, Novo NM, Aristide L (2013) "Divergence times and the evolutionary radiation of New World monkeys (Platyrrhini, Primates): An analysis of fossil and molecular Data". ''PLoS One'' 8(6):e68029.

Classification

The following is the listing of the various platyrrhine families, as defined by Rylands & Mittermeier (2009), and their position in the Order Primates: * Order

Primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

s ** Suborder

Strepsirrhini Strepsirrhini or Strepsirhini (; ) is a Order (biology), suborder of primates that includes the Lemuriformes, lemuriform primates, which consist of the lemurs of Fauna of Madagascar, Madagascar, galagos ("bushbabies") and pottos from Fauna of A ...

lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...

loris Loris is the common name for the strepsirrhine mammals of the subfamily Lorinae (sometimes spelled Lorisinae) in the family Lorisidae. ''Loris'' is one genus in this subfamily and includes the slender lorises, ''Nycticebus'' is the genus cont ...

es,

galago Galagos , also known as bush babies or ''nagapies'' (meaning "night monkeys" in Afrikaans), are small nocturnal primates native to continental, sub-Sahara Africa, and make up the family Galagidae (also sometimes called Galagonidae). They are ...

s, etc. ** Suborder

Haplorrhini Haplorhini (), the haplorhines (Greek for "simple-nosed") or the "dry-nosed" primates is a suborder of primates containing the tarsiers and the simians (Simiiformes or anthropoids), as sister of the Strepsirrhini ("moist-nosed"). The name is som ...

tarsier Tarsiers ( ) are haplorhine primates of the family Tarsiidae, which is the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was prehistorically more globally widespread, all of the existing species are restricted to M ...

s +

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

s, including apes *** Infraorder

Tarsiiformes Tarsiiformes are a group of primates that once ranged across Europe, northern Africa, Asia, and North America, but whose extant species are all found in the islands of Southeast Asia. Tarsiers (family Tarsiidae) are the only living members of ...

: tarsiers *** Infraorder

**** Parvorder

s, apes (including humans) **** Parvorder Platyrrhini: New World monkeys ***** Family

marmoset The marmosets (), also known as zaris or sagoin, are twenty-two New World monkey species of the genera '' Callithrix'', '' Cebuella'', '' Callibella'', and ''Mico''. All four genera are part of the biological family Callitrichidae. The term ...

s and

tamarin The tamarins are squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae in the genus ''Saguinus''. They are the first offshoot in the Callitrichidae tree, and therefore are the sister group of a clade formed by the lion tamarins, Go ...

s ***** Family

capuchins Capuchin can refer to: *Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, an order of Roman Catholic friars *Capuchin Poor Clares, an order of Roman Catholic contemplative religious sisters *Capuchin monkey, primates of the genus ''Cebus'' and ''Sapajus'', named af ...

and

squirrel monkey Squirrel monkeys are New World monkeys of the genus ''Saimiri''. ''Saimiri'' is the only genus in the subfamily Saimiriinae. The name of the genus is of Tupi origin (''sai-mirím'' or ''çai-mbirín'', with ''sai'' meaning 'monkey' and ''mirím' ...

s ***** Family

night Night, or nighttime, is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Sunlight illuminates one side of the Earth, leaving the other in darkness. The opposite of nighttime is daytime. Earth's rotation causes the appearance of ...

or owl monkeys (douroucoulis) ***** Family

titi The titis, or titi monkeys, are New World monkeys of the subfamily Callicebinae, which contains three extant genera: ''Cheracebus'', ''Callicebus'', and ''Plecturocebus.'' This subfamily also contains the extinct genera '' Miocallicebus, Homuncu ...

saki Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 14 November 1916), popularly known by his pen name Saki and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirise Edwardian society and ...

s, and

uakari Uakari (, ) is the common name for the New World monkeys from the genus ''Cacajao''. Both the English and scientific names are believed to have originated from indigenous languages. The uakaris are unusual among New World monkeys in that the tail ...

s ***** Family

: howler,

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

, woolly spider, and

s The arrangement of the New World monkey families, indeed the listing of which groups consist of families and which consist of lower taxonomic groupings, has changed over the years. McKenna & Bell (1997) used two families: Callitrichidae and Atelidae, with Atelidae divided into Cebinae, Pitheciinae, and Atelinae. Rosenberger (2002 following Horowitz 1999) demoted Callitrichidae to a subfamily, putting it under the newly raised Cebidae family. Groves (2005) used four families, but as a flat structure. One possible arrangement of the five families and their subfamilies of Rylands & Mittermeier can be seen in Silvestro ''et al.'' (2017):

Characteristics

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

monkeys are small to mid-sized primates, ranging from the

pygmy marmoset Pygmy marmosets are two species of small New World monkeys in the genus ''Cebuella''. They are native to Amazon rainforest, rainforests of the western Amazon Basin in South America. These primates are notable for being the smallest monkeys in th ...

(the world's smallest monkey), at and a weight of , to the

southern muriqui The southern muriqui (''Brachyteles arachnoides'') is a muriqui (woolly spider monkey) species endemic to Brazil. Taxonomy Taxonomy of muriquis is controversial because some scientists believe that they are a monotypic genus while others favor ...

, at and a weight of . New World monkeys differ slightly from

s in several aspects. The most prominent phenotypic distinction is the nose, which is the feature used most commonly to distinguish between the two groups. The clade for New World monkeys, Platyrrhini, means "flat nosed". The noses of New World monkeys are flatter than the narrow noses of Old World monkeys, and have side-facing nostrils. New World monkeys are the only monkeys with

s—in comparison with the shorter, non-grasping tails of the anthropoids of the Old World. Prehensility has evolved at least two distinct times in platyrrhines, in the Atelidae family (spider monkeys, woolly spider monkeys, howler monkeys, and woolly monkeys), and in capuchin monkeys (''Cebus''). Although prehensility is present in all of these primate species, skeletal and muscular-based morphological differences between these two groups indicate that the trait evolved separately through convergent evolution. The fully prehensile tails that have evolved in Atelidae allow the primates to suspend their entire body weight by only their tails, with arms and legs free for other foraging and locomotive activities. Semi-prehensile tails in ''Cebus'' can be used for balance by wrapping the tail around branches and supporting a large portion of their weight. New World monkeys (except for the

howler monkey Howler monkeys (genus ''Alouatta'', monotypic in subfamily Alouattinae) are the most widespread primate genus in the Neotropical realm, Neotropics and are among the largest of the New World monkey, platyrrhines along with the muriquis (''Brachyte ...

s of genus ''Alouatta'') also typically lack the

trichromatic Trichromacy or trichromatism is the possession of three independent channels for conveying color information, derived from the three different types of cone cells in the eye. Organisms with trichromacy are called trichromats. The normal expl ...

vision of Old World monkeys. Colour vision in New World primates relies on a single gene on the

X-chromosome The X chromosome is one of the two sex chromosomes in many organisms, including mammals, and is found in both males and females. It is a part of the XY sex-determination system and XO sex-determination system. The X chromosome was named for its u ...

to produce pigments that absorb medium and long wavelength light, which contrasts with short wavelength light. As a result, males rely on a single medium/long pigment gene and are dichromatic, as are

homozygous Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. Mos ...

females.

Heterozygous Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. Mos ...

females may possess two alleles with different sensitivities within this range, and so can display

vision. Platyrrhines also differ from Old World monkeys in that they have twelve

premolar The premolars, also called premolar Tooth (human), teeth, or bicuspids, are transitional teeth located between the Canine tooth, canine and Molar (tooth), molar teeth. In humans, there are two premolars per dental terminology#Quadrant, quadrant in ...

s instead of eight; having a

dental formula Dentition pertains to the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth. In particular, it is the characteristic arrangement, kind, and number of teeth in a given species at a given age. That is, the number, type, and morpho-physiology ...

of or (consisting of 2 incisors, 1 canine, 3 premolars, and 2 or 3 molars). This is in contrast with Old World Anthropoids, including

gorilla Gorillas are primarily herbivorous, terrestrial great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five su ...

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

bonobo The bonobo (; ''Pan paniscus''), also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee (less often the dwarf chimpanzee or gracile chimpanzee), is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus ''Pan (genus), Pan'' (the other bei ...

siamang The siamang (, ; ''Symphalangus syndactylus'') is an endangered arboreal, black-furred gibbon native to the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The largest of the gibbons, the siamang can be twice the size of other gibbons, reaching i ...

gibbon Gibbons () are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical forests from eastern Bangladesh and Northeast Indi ...

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...

s, and most

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

s, which share a dental formula of . Many New World monkeys are small and almost all are

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally (scansorial), but others are exclusively arboreal. The hab ...

, so knowledge of them is less comprehensive than that of the more easily observed Old World monkeys. Unlike most Old World monkeys, many New World monkeys form

monogamous Monogamy ( ) is a relationship of two individuals in which they form a mutual and exclusive intimate partnership. Having only one partner at any one time, whether for life or serial monogamy, contrasts with various forms of non-monogamy (e.g. ...

pair bond In biology, a pair bond is the strong affinity that develops in some species between a mating pair, often leading to the production and rearing of young and potentially a lifelong bond. Pair-bonding is a term coined in the 1940s that is frequently ...

s, and show substantial

paternal care In biology, paternal care is parental investment provided by a male to his own offspring. It is a complex social behavior in vertebrates associated with animal mating systems, life history traits, and ecology. Paternal care may be provided in co ...

of young. They eat fruits, nuts, insects, flowers, bird eggs, spiders, and small mammals. Unlike humans and most Old World monkeys, their thumbs are not

opposable The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thumb ...

(except for some cebids).

References

External links

*
''Geographic Distributions of Amazonian Primates''
– Tomas and

Marc van Roosmalen Marc van Roosmalen (born 23 June 1947) is a Dutch-Brazilian primatologist. He was elected as one of the "Heroes for the Planet" by ''Time'' magazine in 2000. His research has led to the identification of several new monkey species, as well as o ...

, Pdf 3,2 Mb {{Authority control Extant Rupelian first appearances

Evolutionary history

Classification

Characteristics

See also

References

Further reading

External links