Antilles monkey
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Skull of Paralouatta marianae in the Museo de Historia Natural in Havana . |
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| MacPhee & Horovitz , 2004 |
The Antilles monkeys (Xenotrichini) are a group of extinct primates that lived on the islands of the Greater Antilles at least until a few thousand years ago .
There are no more primates on the islands of the Caribbean today, but most of the species found recently show that these animals also existed there at least until they were colonized by the Native Americans. The relationship between these species is suggested by details in the structure of the skull and the lower jaw, such as a reduction in the number of teeth.
Nothing is known about the exact time and causes of the extinction, but the species survived at least until around 2000 BC, in the case of the Jamaican monkey it is conceivable that it still existed at the time of settlement by the Europeans.
Systematics
The family relationships to the living New World monkeys are still not completely clear. It is controversial whether they are more related to the night monkey ( Aotus ) or whether the jumper monkeys (Callicebinae) are their closest living relatives and thus they can be classified in the family of the sakia monkeys (Pitheciidae).
So far, four genera and five species of the Antilles monkey are known:
- Genus Xenothrix
- The Jamaican monkey ( Xenothrix mcgregori ) is the oldest known species, it lived in Jamaica.
- Genus Paralouatta
- The Kuba monkey ( Paralouatta varonai ) had particularly large eyes, similar to the recent night monkeys ( Aotus ).
- Paralouatta marianae was the largest representative of the group.
- Genus Antillothrix
- The Hispaniola monkey ( Antillothrix bernensis ) is known from finds from the Dominican Republic .
- Genus Insulacebus
- Insulacebus toussaintiana was only described in 2011 after finds from southwest Haiti .
A study published in November 2018 DNA analysis showed that the Jamaican Monkey the sister group of occurring in the northwestern South Spring monkeys genus Cheracebus is. Xenothrix and Cheracebus separated evolutionarily about 11 million years ago. The other endemic monkey species formerly found in the Caribbean separated from their South or Central American ancestors 17.5 to 18.5 million years ago. This makes the Antilles monkeys a polyphyletic group.
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b S.B. Cooke AL Rosenberger, S. Turvey: An extinct monkey from Haiti and the origins of the Greater Antillean primates . In: PNAS . 108, No. 7, 2011, pp. 2699-2704. doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1009161108 .
- ↑ RDE MacPhee, Inés Horovitz: New Craniodental Remains of the Quaternary Jamaican Monkey Xenothrix mcgregori (Xenotrichini, Callicebinae, Pitheciidae), with a Reconsideration of the Aotus Hypothesis . In: American Museum Novitates . May 2004, p. 1-51 , doi : 10.1206 / 0003-0082 (2004) 434 <0001: NCROTQ> 2.0.CO; 2 .
- ^ M. Rivero, O. Arredondo: Paralouatta varonai , a new Quaternary platyrrhine from Cuba . In: Journal of Human Evolution . 21, 1991, pp. 1-11. doi : 10.1016 / 0047-2484 (91) 90032-Q .
- ^ RDE MacPhee, MA Iturralde-Vinent, ES Gaffney: 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 . In: American Museum Novitates . 3394, No. 1, February 2003, pp. 1-42. doi : 10.1206 / 0003-0082 (2003) 394 <0001: DDZAEM> 2.0.CO; 2 .
- ↑ Roseina Woods, Samuel T. Turvey, Selina Brace, Ross DE MacPhee, Ian Barnes. Ancient DNA of the extinct Jamaican monkey Xenothrix reveals extreme insular change within a morphologically conservative radiation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018; 201808603 DOI: 10.1073 / pnas.1808603115