Xenotrichini

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Xenotrichini
Temporal range: Miocene-Holocene
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Family: Pitheciidae
Subfamily: Pitheciinae
Tribe: Xenotrichini
MacPhee & Horovitz, 2004
Genera

Xenothrix
Antillothrix
Insulacebus

Xenotrichini (the Antilles monkeys) is a tribe of extinct primates, which lived on the Greater Antilles as recently as the 16th century.

Contents

These Caribbean islands no longer contain endemic primates, although the most recently discovered species, the Hispaniola monkey, was reported to have lived on Hispaniola until the settlement by the Europeans. The relationship of these species is supported by details in the formation of the skull and the lower jaw, such as a reduction in the number of teeth.

Taxonomy

The exact timing and causes of extinction are not well-known and their relationship and placement in the parvorder of the New World monkeys is unsure. Originally they were thought to be closely related to the night monkeys, but more recent research as placed them in Callicebinae subfamily, containing the titi monkeys. [1]

A 2018 DNA study of the Jamaican monkey suggested that it diverged from its closest relative Cheracebus around 11 Ma, during the Late Miocene, which is younger than the 18 Ma Paralouatta from Cuba, meaning that the Jamaican monkey has a separate origin from the rest of the Antillean monkeys, making the group polyphyletic. [2] The Cuban monkeys (Paralouatta varonai and P. marianae) of Cuba were originally thought to be in the tribe, but more recent research shows a closer relationship with Alouatta , the howler monkeys. [3]

Species

So far, three species of Xenotrichini are known:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pitheciidae</span> Family of mammals

The Pitheciidae are one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised. Formerly, they were included in the family Atelidae. The family includes the titis, saki monkeys and uakaris. Most species are native to the Amazon region of Brazil, with some being found from Colombia in the north to Bolivia in the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown titi monkey</span> Species of New World monkey

The brown titi monkey is a species of titi monkey, a type of New World monkey, from South America. It is endemic to Brazil. It was originally described as Callicebus brunneus in 1842 and transferred to the newly erected genus Plecturocebus in 2016.

<i>Nesophontes</i> Extinct family of mammals

Nesophontes, sometimes called West Indies shrews, is the sole genus of the extinct, monotypic mammal family Nesophontidae in the order Eulipotyphla. These animals were small insectivores, about 5 to 15 cm long, with a long slender snout and head and a long tail. They were endemic to the Greater Antilles, in Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands.

<i>Paralouatta</i> Extinct genus of new world monkeys

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The Hispaniola monkey 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 and cause of the extinction are unclear, but it is likely related to the settlement of Hispaniola by Europeans after 1492.

The mammalian order Pilosa, which includes the sloths and anteaters, includes various species from the Caribbean region. Many species of sloths are known from the Greater Antilles, all of which became extinct over the last millennia, but some sloths and anteaters survive on islands closer to the mainland.

A unique and diverse albeit phylogenetically restricted mammal fauna is known from the Caribbean region. The region—specifically, all islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Barbados, which are not in the Caribbean Sea but biogeographically belong to the same Caribbean bioregion—has been home to several families found nowhere else, but much of this diversity is now extinct.

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, Department du Sud, southwestern Haiti. The body mass of the monkey was estimated between 4,159 and 5,443 grams. The dentally primitive I. toussaintiana was likely derived from a fauna that was evolving on the mainland before the Miocene monkey bed of the Honda Group of central Colombia, and stems from a pre-Middle Miocene colonization from the South American mainland.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megalocnidae</span> Extinct Greater Antilles sloth family

Megalocnidae is an extinct family of sloths, native to the islands of the Greater Antilles from the Early Oligocene to the Mid-Holocene. They are known from Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, but are absent from Jamaica. While they were formerly placed in the Megalonychidae alongside two-toed sloths and ground sloths like Megalonyx, recent mitochondrial DNA and collagen sequencing studies place them as the earliest diverging group basal to all other sloths. They displayed significant diversity in body size and lifestyle, with Megalocnus being terrestrial and probably weighing several hundred kilograms, while Neocnus was likely arboreal and similar in weight to extant tree sloths, at less than 10 kilograms.

Ian Barnes is an evolutionary geneticist notable for his work on ancient DNA, human and animal migration, and phylogenetics. Barnes is a Research Leader in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum in London.

References

  1. MacPhee, R. D. E.; Horovitz, I. (14 May 2004). "New craniodental remains of the quaternary Jamaican monkey Xenothrix mcgregori (Xenotrichini, Callicebinae, Pitheciidae), with a reconsideration of the Aotus hypothesis". American Museum Novitates (3434): 1–51. doi:10.1206/0003-0082(2004)434<0001:NCROTQ>2.0.CO;2. S2CID   86051925.
  2. Woods, Roseina; Turvey, Samuel T.; Brace, Selina; MacPhee, Ross D. E.; Barnes, Ian (2018-12-11). "Ancient DNA of the extinct Jamaican monkey Xenothrix reveals extreme insular change within a morphologically conservative radiation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (50): 12769–12774. Bibcode:2018PNAS..11512769W. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1808603115 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   6294883 . PMID   30420497.
  3. Silvestro, Daniele; Marcelo F. Tejedor; Martha L. Serrano Serrano; Oriane Loiseau; Victor Rossier; Jonathan Rolland; Alexander Zizka; Alexandre Antonelli, and Nicolas Salamin. 2017. Evolutionary history of New World monkeys revealed by molecular and fossil data. BioRxiv _. 1–32. Accessed 2019-02-20.