Hispaniola monkey

Last updated

Hispaniola monkey
Temporal range: Quaternary
Extinct  (early 1500s)
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
Genus: Antillothrix
MacPhee, Horovitz, Arredondo, & Jimenez Vasquez, 1995
Species:
A. bernensis
Binomial name
Antillothrix bernensis
Rímoli, 1977
Synonyms
  • Saimiri 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 and cause of the extinction are unclear, but it is likely related to the settlement of Hispaniola by Europeans after 1492.

Contents

Description

Horovitz and MacPhee [1] developed the hypothesis, first proposed by MacPhee et al., [2] that all the Antillean monkeys (the others being the two Cuban monkey species of genus Paralouatta, and the Jamaican monkey, Xenothrix mcgregori) belonged to a monophyletic group linked most closely with the modern genus Callicebus . They later assigned the Antillean monkeys to the tribe Xenotrichini [3] – the sister group of the tribe Callicebini with extensive anatomical comparisons and by extending their parsimony analysis using PAUP*. [4] They maintained that the monophyly of the Antillean monkeys was still supported in the most parsimonious trees, but in slightly less parsimonious trees, Aotus appeared to be linked with Xenothrix.

Skull discovery

In July 2009, Walter Pickel found a A. bernensis skull while diving in underwater caves. The skull was found in the La Jeringa Cave of Cotubanamá National Park. The skull, long bones and ribs were recovered by Walter Pickel and Curt Bowen in October 2009 under the supervision of the Dominican Republic and Alfred L. Rosenberger from Brooklyn College. The discovery supported the MacPhee et al. hypothesis of a monophyletic origin of the Antilles monkeys. [5] This 2009 discovery of the skull suggested that these primates were diurnal, due to their relatively smaller ocular orbits. [6]

See also

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.

<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

Paralouatta is a platyrrhine genus that currently contains two extinct species of small primates that lived on the island of Cuba.

Acratocnus is an extinct genus of ground sloths that were found on Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico.

The Jamaican monkey 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.

<i>Megalocnus</i> Extinct genus of sloths

Megalocnus is a genus of extinct ground sloths that were native to Cuba during the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. They were among the largest of the Caribbean sloths (Megalocnidae), with individuals estimated to have weighed up to 270 kg to 200 kg, around the size of a black bear when alive. Its relatives include other megalocnid sloths, such as Acratocnus, Mesocnus, Miocnus, Neocnus andParocnus. The former species M. zile from Hispaniola is currently thought to be a junior synonym of Parocnus serus.

The Caribbean bioregion is a biogeographic region that includes the islands of the Caribbean Sea and nearby Atlantic islands, which share a fauna, flora and mycobiota distinct from surrounding bioregions.

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

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.

<i>Trypanosoma antiquus</i> Extinct species in the kinetoplast class

Trypanosoma antiquus is an extinct species of kinetoplastid, a monophyletic group of unicellular parasitic flagellate protozoa.

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.

The Lagunitas Formation is a geologic formation in Cuba. The open marine, fluvio-deltaic and lagoonal claystones, limestones and conglomerates preserve fossils dating back to the Early Miocene period. Among others, the fossil primate Paralouatta marianae, the largest primate of the Miocene New World, was found in the formation. Based on microfossils, the age has been determined as Burdigalian.

Mohanamico is an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Middle Miocene. Its remains have been found at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in the Honda Group of Colombia. The type species is M. hershkovitzi. Due to the relatively few material found of Mohanamico, the placement of the genus is not certain and four possible families have been proposed by different authors, Atelidae, Callitrichidae, Pitheciidae or Aotidae.

<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.

<i>Parocnus</i> Extinct genus of ground sloths

Parocnus is an extinct genus of sloth native to Cuba and Hispaniola, belonging to the family Megalocnidae. It was a terrestrial ground sloth, being the second largest Caribbean sloth after Megalocnus.

References

  1. Horovitz, I.; MacPhee, R.D.E. (1999). "The quaternary Cuban platyrrhine Paralouatta varonai and the origin of the Antillean monkeys". Journal of Human Evolution . 36 (1): 33–68. doi:10.1006/jhev.1998.0259. PMID   9924133.
  2. MacPhee, R.D.E.; et al. (1995). "A New Genus for the Extinct Hispaniolan Monkey Saimiri bernensis Rímoli, 1977, with Notes on Its Systematic Position". 3134. American Museum Novitates: 21.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. MacPhee, R. D. E.; Horovitz, I. (May 14, 2004). "New craniodental remains of the quaternary Jamaican monkey Xenothrix mcgregori (Xenotrichini, Callicebinae, Pitheciidae), with a reconsideration of the Aotus hypothesis". American Museum Novitates . New York: American Museum of Natural History (3434): 1–51. doi:10.1206/0003-0082(2004)434<0001:NCROTQ>2.0.CO;2. S2CID   86051925.
  4. Swofford, D.L. (2002) PAUP*: phylogenetic analysis using parsimony (* and other methods) Version 4. Sinauer, Sunderland, MA
  5. Rosenberger, A. L.; Cooke, S. B.; Rimoli, R.; Ni, X.; Cardoso, L. (2010). "First skull of Antillothrix bernensis, an extinct relict monkey from the Dominican Republic". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 278 (1702): 67–74. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1249. PMC   2992729 . PMID   20659936.
  6. Kay, R.; Hunt, K.; Beeker, C.; Conrad, G.; Johnson, C.; Keller, J. (2010). "Preliminary notes on a newly discovered skull of the extinct monkey Antillothrix from Hispaniola and the origin of the Greater Antillean monkeys". Journal of Human Evolution. 60 (1): 124–128. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2010.09.003. hdl: 10161/10794 . PMID   21074827.