Branisella boliviana

Taxobox
name = "Branisella boliviana"
fossil_range = Late Oligocene
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Primates
parvordo = Platyrrhini
familia = "incertae sedis"
genus = "Branisella"
species = "B. boliviana"
binomial = "Branisella boliviana"
binomial_authority = Hoffstetter, 1969

"Branisella boliviana" is an extinct species of New World monkey from the Salla formation of what is now Bolivia during the late Oligocene, approximately 26 million years ago. [cite journal | author = Takai, M, "et al" | title = New fossil materials of the earliest new world monkey, Branisella boliviana, and the problem of platyrrhine origins. | journal = American Journal of Physical Anthropology | year = 2000 | month = February | volume = 111 | issue = 2 | pages = 263–81 | doi = 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(200002)111:2<263::AID-AJPA10>3.0.CO;2-6 | doilabel = 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(200002)111:2263::AID-AJPA103.0.CO;2-6] It is the oldest fossil New World Monkey discovered. It was found in Bolivia by the paleonthologist Leonardo Branisa, and it was named after him by Hoffstetter, the scientist who first described and classified it in 1969. [cite journal | author = Hoffstetter MR | year = 1969 | title = Un primate de l'Pliocène inférieur sudamericain: Branisella boliviana gen. et sp. nov. | journal = C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris | volume = 269 | pages = 434–437] Morphologically, it is similar to "Proteopithecus", an Oligocene primate from Africa, in its reduced upper 2nd premolar and unreduced lower 2nd premolar. This has led many scientists to hypothesize that the primitive platyrrhine ancestors of "Branisella" came to South America from Africa. Within platyrrhines, this taxon has been interpreted as either a stem platyrrhine not related to any of the living forms or as a primitive callitrichine. As "Branisella" is currently the only South American primate taxon known until the Miocene, more fossils are needed before it's phylogenetic position can be clearly established.

References

External links

[http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/users/haaramo/metazoa/Deuterostoma/chordata/Synapsida/Eutheria/Primates/Platyrrhini/Platyrrhini_1.htm Mikko's Phylogeny Archive]