''Paracolobus'' is an extinct genus of

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 huma ...

closely related to the living

colobus monkeys Black-and-white colobuses (or colobi) are Old World monkeys of the genus ''Colobus'', native to Africa. They are closely related to the red colobus monkeys of genus '' Piliocolobus''. There are five species of this monkey, and at least eight subs ...

. It lived in eastern Africa in the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

. Fossils have been found in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

, in places such as the

Omo valley The Omo River (also called Omo-Bottego) in southern Ethiopia is the largest Ethiopian river outside the Nile Basin. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia, and it empties into Lake Turkana on the border with Kenya. The ...

Description

Species of ''Paracolobus'' were large monkeys; ''P. chemeroni'' is estimated to have weighed between , while ''P. mutiwa'' and the comparatively small ''P. enkorikae'' have been estimated at and , respectively. Compared to another giant monkey ''

Cercopithecoides ''Cercopithecoides'' is an extinct genus of colobine monkey from Africa which lived during the latest Miocene to the Pleistocene period. There are several recognized species, with the smallest close in size to some of the larger extant colobines, ...

'', ''Paracolobus'' had a longer face and deeper jaws. It had a longer cranium, broader muzzle, wider face and longer nasal bone than its closest relative, the extinct ''

Rhinocolobus ''Rhinocolobus'' is an extinct genus of monkey closely related to modern colobus monkeys. It lived in eastern Africa during the Plio-Pleistocene, existing as recently as 1.5 million years ago. Taxonomy Fossils of ''Rhinocolobus'' were found in S ...

''. Its dentition was similar to modern colobus monkeys, indicating a largely folivorous diet. Despite its large size, it was probably arboreal like its modern relatives.

References

Literature cited

*McKenna, M.C. and Bell, S.K. 1997. Classification of Mammals: Above the species level. New York: Columbia University Press, 631 pp. Colobinae Pliocene primates Pleistocene primates Pliocene mammals of Africa Pleistocene mammals of Africa Prehistoric primate genera Fossil taxa described in 1969 Taxa named by Richard Leakey {{oldworld-monkey-stub