Various fossil primates have been found in South America and adjacent regions such as Panama and the Caribbean.Tejedor et al., 2013, p.22 Presently, 78 species of

New World monkey New World monkeys are the five families of primates that are found in the tropical regions of Mexico, Central and South America: Callitrichidae, Cebidae, Aotidae, Pitheciidae, and Atelidae. The five families are ranked together as the Ceboidea ...

s have been registered in South America.Rosenberger & Hartwig, 2001, p.2 Around the middle of the Cenozoic, approximately 34 million years ago,Lynch Alfaro et al., 2015, p.519 two types of mammals appeared for the first time in South America:

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

s and

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter including ...

s. Both of these groups had already been inhabiting other continents for millions of years and they simply arrived in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

rather than originated there. Analyses of evolutionary relationships have shown that their closest relatives were living in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

at the time. Therefore, the most likely explanation is that they somehow crossed the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, which was less wide than today, landed in South America, and founded new populations of rodents and primates.South American Fossil Mammals
/ref> The first South American primates gave rise to an impressive evolutionary radiation: more than 120 species in five families. These primates are known as

platyrrhine New World monkeys are the five families of primates that are found in the tropical regions of Mexico, Central and South America: Callitrichidae, Cebidae, Aotidae, Pitheciidae, and Atelidae. The five families are ranked together as the Ceboidea ...

(flat-nosed) primates and are closely related to Old World apes and monkeys ( catarrhine primates). Platyrrhines include some of the most popular and acrobatic monkeys such as

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 ...

s (''

Ateles 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 ...

'') and capuchins (''

Cebus Gracile capuchin monkeys are capuchin monkeys in the genus ''Cebus''. At one time all capuchin monkeys were included within the genus ''Cebus''. In 2011, Jessica Lynch Alfaro ''et al.'' proposed splitting the genus between the robust capuchin ...

''), both of which have grasping (prehensile) tails that can be used as a fifth limb. Platyrrhines also include a wide variety of colorful

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, Goe ...

s and

marmoset The marmosets (), also known as zaris or sagoin, are 22 New World monkey species of the genera '' Callithrix'', '' Cebuella'', '' Callibella'', and ''Mico''. All four genera are part of the biological family Callitrichidae. The term "marmoset" ...

s (family

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 the ...

). The platyrrhine primate fossil record is relatively sparse, quite unlike that of caviomorph rodents. The presently oldest New World monkey is '' Perupithecus ucayaliensis'' from Amazonian Peru, described in 2015.Bond et al., 2015, p.538 A 2017 study of the fossils estimated the body mass for the various fossil primate species.Silvestro et al., 2017, p.14 However, the '' Ucayalipithecus'' who might have rafted across the Atlantic between ~35–32 million years ago, are nested within the

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 Para ...

from the

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

of Afro-Arabia.Seiffert et al., 2020, pp.194–197 __TOC__

List of fossil primates of South America

''Note:'' some authors, among others Fossilworks, consider ''

Killikaike ''Killikaike'' is an extinct genus of New World monkey. The genus includes one species, ''Killikaike blakei'', that lived in Argentina during the Early Miocene. ''Killikaike blakei'' was collected in southern-most Argentina in January, 2005 and t ...

'' synonymous with ''

Homunculus A homunculus ( , , ; "little person") is a representation of a small human being, originally depicted as small statues made out of clay. Popularized in sixteenth-century alchemy and nineteenth-century fiction, it has historically referred to the ...

'' and '' Szalatavus'' with ''

Branisella ''Branisella'' is an extinct genus of New World monkey from the Salla Formation of what is now Bolivia during the Late Oligocene, approximately 26 million years ago (Deseadan), comprising only the species ''Branisella boliviana''.Evolution of primates *

List of fossil primates This is a list of fossil primates—extinct primates for which a fossil record exists. Primates are generally thought to have evolved from a small, unspecialized mammal, which probably fed on insects and fruits. However, the precise source of the p ...

List of prehistoric mammals This is an incomplete list of prehistoric mammals. It does not include extant mammals or recently extinct mammals. For extinct primate species, see: list of fossil primates.Mikko's Phylogeny Archiv Mammaliaformes ' *Genus †'' Adelobasileus ...

List of New World monkey species New World monkeys are all simian primates. While they are endemic to South and Central America, their ancestors rafted over or traversed via land bridge from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean when it was much narrower than at present. Taxonom ...

** List of primates of Central America ** List of primates of Colombia ** List of primates of Peru * List of gomphothere fossils in South America

List of fossil primates of South America

References

Bibliography

General

Specific

Further reading