Cuba monkey
| Cuba monkey | ||||||||||||
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Skull of Paralouatta varonai in a natural history museum in Havana |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Paralouatta varonai | ||||||||||||
| Rivero & Arredondo , 1991 |
The Cuba monkey ( Paralouatta varonai ) is an extinct primate species that was found on the island of Cuba and lived at least until 3000 BC.
Several subfossil remains have been found since 1987, including a nearly complete skull and several parts of the body skeleton. The finds indicate that the species reached a weight of ten to twelve kilograms and possibly lived at least temporarily on the ground.
The species got its generic name due to superficial similarities with the howler monkeys ( Alouatta ), whose close relatives they were initially thought to be. Details of the structure of the teeth and jaws rule out a closer relationship with them; today they are assigned to the Antilles monkeys (Xenotrichini), an extinct group of primates in the Greater Antilles . Its closest relative is the Hispaniola monkey ( Antillothrix bernensis ).
The exact time and causes of the extinction of the Cuban monkeys are unclear, but it is likely to be related to the colonization of Cuba by the Indians . The youngest known finds are dated to an age of around 5000 years.
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
supporting documents
- ↑ Thomas A. Püschel, Jordi Marcé-Nogué, Justin Gladman, Biren A. Patel, Sergio Almécija and William I. Sellers: Getting Its Feet on the Ground: Elucidating Paralouatta's Semi-Terrestriality Using the Virtual Morpho-Functional Toolbox. Frontiers in Earth Science, 2020, doi: 10.3389 / feart.2020.00079