Cuban monkey

Taxobox
name = Cuban monkeys
fossil_range = Oligocene-Miocene
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Primates
familia = Pitheciidae
subfamilia = Callicebinae
tribus = †Xenotrichini
genus = †"Paralouatta"
genus_authority = Rivero & Arredondo, 1991
subdivision_ranks = Palaeospecies
subdivision =
* †"Paralouatta varonai"
* †"Paralouatta marianae"

The Cuban monkeys are two extinct species of small primates that lived on the island of Cuba.

The Cuban fossil primate, "Paralouatta varonai" was described from a nearly complete cranium in 1991. This cranium and a number of isolated teeth and postcranial bones were found in a cave site in Pinar del Rio Province. The initial description of the cranium included a proposal that "Paralouatta varonai" was a close Caribbean relative of the extant "Alouatta" (howler monkeys) of Central and South America, [cite journal | author = Rivero, M. & Arredondo, O. | year = 1991 | title = "Paralouatta varonai", a new Quaternary platyrrhine from Cuba | journal = Journal of Human Evolution | volume = 21 | pages = 1-11] but this taxonomic placement has been called into question with the analysis of the dental remains. [cite journal| author = Horovitz, I. & MacPhee, R.D.E. | year = 1999 | title = The quaternary Cuban platyrrhine "Paralouatta varonai" and the origin of the Antillean monkeys | journal = Journal of Human Evolution | volume = 36 | issue = 1 | pages = 33-68 | id = doi|10.1006/jhev.1998.0259 ] Based on shared similarities with the two other Caribbean primates "Xenothrix mcgregori" 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-Miocene boundary. More recent research confirms this assessment and places these three species in the tribe Xenotrichini. [cite journal | author = MacPhee, R.D.E. & Horovitz, I. | year = 2004 | title = New Craniodental Remains of the Quaternary Jamaican Monkey "Xenothrix mcgregori" (Xenotrichini, Callicebinae, Pitheciidae), with a Reconsideration of the "Aotus" Hypothesis | journal = American Museum Novitates | volume = 3434 | issue = 1 | pages = 1-51 | id = doi|10.1206/0003-0082(2004)434<0001:NCROTQ>2.0.CO;2]

A second species of "Paralouatta" ("P. marianae") has also been described. [cite journal | title = Domo de Zaza, an Early Miocene Vertebrate Locality in South-Central Cuba, with Notes on the Tectonic Evolution of Puerto Rico and the Mona Passage | author = MacPhee, R.D.E., Iturralde-Vinent, M.A., and Gaffney, E.S. | journal = American Museum Novitates | pages = pp. 1–42 | volume = 3394 | issue = 1 | year = 2003 | month = February | doi = 10.1206/0003-0082(2003)394<0001:DDZAEM>2.0.CO;2]

References

External links

* [http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/users/haaramo/Metazoa/deuterostoma/Chordata/Synapsida/Eutheria/Primates/Platyrrhini/Homunculini.htm Mikko's Phylogeny archive]