''Paralouatta'' is a

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 () ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

that currently contains two

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

species of small

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 ...

s that lived on the island of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

Description

''Paralouatta varonai'' was described from a nearly complete

cranium The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...

from the late

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

in 1991. This cranium and a number of isolated teeth and postcranial bones were found in the Cueva del Mono, a cave site in

Pinar del Río Province Pinar del Río is one of the provinces of Cuba. It is at the western end of the island of Cuba. Geography The Pinar del Río province is Cuba's westernmost province and contains one of Cuba's three main mountain ranges, the Cordillera de Guanig ...

. The initial description of the cranium included a proposal that ''Paralouatta varonai'' was a close Caribbean relative of the extant ''Alouatta'' (

howler monkey Howler monkeys (genus ''Alouatta'', monotypic in subfamily Alouattinae) are the most widespread primate genus in the Neotropics and are among the largest of the platyrrhines along with the muriquis (''Brachyteles''), the spider monkeys (''Ateles' ...

s) of Central and South America, but this taxonomic placement was called into question with the analysis of the dental remains. Based on shared similarities with the three other Caribbean monkeys, ''

Xenothrix mcgregori The Jamaican monkey (''Xenothrix mcgregori'') is an extinct species of New World monkey that was endemic to Jamaica. It was first uncovered at Long Mile Cave by Harold Anthony in 1920. Discovery Harold Anthony is responsible for many species d ...

'', ''

Insulacebus toussaintiana ''Insulacebus'' is an extinct monotypic genus of New World monkey found on the island of Hispaniola from Late Quaternary deposits. Fossils of the type species ''Insulacebus toussaintiana'' have been recovered from the Plain of Formon, Departmen ...

'', and ''

Antillothrix bernensis The Hispaniola monkey (''Antillothrix bernensis'') is an extinct primate that was endemic on the island of Hispaniola, in the present-day Dominican Republic. The species is thought to have gone extinct around the 16th century. The exact timing a ...

'', MacPhee and Horovitz have proposed that the Caribbean primates are part of a monophyletic radiation which entered the Caribbean at the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

–

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

boundary. Further research confirms this assessment and places these three species in the tribe

Xenotrichini Xenotrichini (the Antilles monkeys) is a tribe of extinct primates, which lived on the Greater Antilles as recently as the 16th century. These Caribbean islands no longer contain endemic primates, although the most recently discovered species, t ...

. However, more recent research restores its close relationship with ''Alouatta''. The postcranial morphology of ''Paralouatta'' suggests that it was partly terrestrial, and a likely example of

island gigantism Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives. Island gigantism is one aspect of the more general "i ...

. A second species of ''Paralouatta'' (''P. marianae'') has also been described from the

Burdigalian The Burdigalian is, in the geologic timescale, an age (geology), age or stage (stratigraphy), stage in the early Miocene. It spans the time between 20.43 ± 0.05 annum, Ma and 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). Preceded by the Aquitanian (sta ...

(~18 million years old) Lagunitas Formation and is the largest

Neotropic primate 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 () ...

known of that epoch.

Paleobiology

''Paralouatta'' had an estimated body mass of . Analysis of postcranial morphology suggests that ''Paralouatta'' was at least somewhat semi-terrestrial, making it the most terrestrial platyrrhine genus known.

References

External links

Mikko's Phylogeny archive
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q19689191, from2=Q1431061 †Paralouatta Prehistoric monkeys Prehistoric primate genera Burdigalian life Miocene mammals of North America Pleistocene mammals of North America Fossils of Cuba Neogene Cuba Pleistocene Caribbean Fossil taxa described in 1991