List of fossil primates of South America explained

Various fossil primates have been found in South America and adjacent regions such as Panama and the Caribbean.^[1] Presently, 78 species of New World monkeys have been registered in South America.^[2] Around the middle of the Cenozoic, approximately 34 million years ago,^[3] two types of mammals appeared for the first time in South America: rodents and primates. Both of these groups had already been inhabiting other continents for millions of years and they simply arrived in South America rather than originated there. Analyses of evolutionary relationships have shown that their closest relatives were living in Africa at the time. Therefore, the most likely explanation is that they somehow crossed the Atlantic Ocean, which was less wide than today, landed in South America, and founded new populations of rodents and primates.^[4]

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 (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 monkeys (Ateles) and capuchins (Cebus), both of which have grasping (prehensile) tails that can be used as a fifth limb. Platyrrhines also include a wide variety of colorful tamarins and marmosets (family Callitrichidae). 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.^[5] A 2017 study of the fossils estimated the body mass for the various fossil primate species.^[6] However, the Ucayalipithecus who might have rafted across the Atlantic between ~35–32 million years ago, are nested within the Parapithecoidea from the Eocene of Afro-Arabia.^[7]

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List of fossil primates of South America

Note: some authors, among others Fossilworks, consider Killikaike synonymous with Homunculus and Szalatavus with Branisella, while other researchers consider the genera as different.
The Panamanian and Caribbean fossil primates have been included for completeness.

Age	Formation	Country	Family	Subfamily	Genus	Species	Estimated body mass	class=unsortable	Notes
			incertae sedis	incertae sedis	Perupithecus	P. ucayaliensis	400g
					Canaanimico	C. amazonensis	2000g
		Branisella			B. boliviana	1000g
		Szalatavus			S. attricuspis	550g
					Paralouatta	P. marianae	4,708 g (10.38 lb)
			stem cebid	Panamacebus	P. transitus	2700g
					Dolichocebus	D. gaimanensis	2700g
		stem aotid		Tremacebus	T. harringtoni	1800g
				Mazzonicebus	M. almendrae	1602g
			stem atelid	Chilecebus	C. carrascoensis	1000g
					Killikaike	K. blakei	2000g
				Homunculus	H. patagonicus	2700g
				Carlocebus	C. carmenensis	3500g
					C. intermedius
				Soriacebus	S. adrianae
					S. ameghinorum	1483g
					Proteropithecia	P. neuquenensis	1600g
					Stirtonia	S. tatacoensis	5513g
S. victoriae						10000g
				Saimiri	S. annectens	605g
					S. fieldsi	768g
				Patasola	P. magdalenae	480g
incertae sedis			incerstae sedis	Lagonimico	L. conclucatus	595g
			-	Micodon	M. kiotensis	400g
			-	Aotus	A. dindensis	1054g
				Miocallicebus	M. villaviejai	1500g
				Cebupithecia	C. sarmientoi	1602g
				Nuciruptor	N. rubricae	2000g
			stem atelid	Mohanamico	M. hershkovitzi	1000g
					Solimoea	S. acrensis	8000g
				Acrecebus	A. fraileyi	12000g
					Paralouatta	P. varonai	8444g
		Cartelles			C. coimbrafilhoi	23500g
		Caipora			C. bambuiorum	24000g
		Protopithecus			P. bonaeriensis	22600g
					P. brasiliensis
		Alouatta			A. mauroi
					Antillothrix	A. bernensis	1500g
		Xenothrix			X. mcgregori	5720g
Trouing Jérémie		Insulacebus			I. toussentiana	4805g

See also

• Evolution of primates
• List of fossil primates
• List of gomphothere fossils in South America
• List of prehistoric mammals
• List of New World monkey species
  • List of primates of Central America
  • List of primates of Colombia
  • List of primates of Peru

References

Bibliography

General

• Bond . Mariano . Tejedor . Marcelo F. . Campbell Jr. . Kenneth E. . Chornogubsky . Laura . Novo . Nelson . Goin . Francisco . 2015 . Eocene primates of South America and the African origins of New World monkeys . . 520 . 7548 . 538–546 . 10.1038/nature14120 . 25652825 . 11336/79088 . 4456556 . 2017-09-24. free .
• Lynch Alfaro . Jessica W. . Cortés Ortiz . Liliana . Di Fiore . Anthony . Boubli . Jean P. . 2015 . Special issue: Comparative biogeography of Neotropical primates . . 82 . 518–529 . 10.1016/j.ympev.2014.09.027 . 25451803 . 2017-09-24.
• Püschel . Thomas A. . Gladman . Justin T. . Bobe . René . Sellers . William I. . 2017 . The evolution of the platyrrhine talus: A comparative analysis of the phenetic affinities of the Miocene platyrrhines with their modern relatives . . 111 . 179–201 . 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.07.015 . 28874270 . 5603972 . free.
• Rosenberger . Alfred L. . Walter Hartwig . Hartwig . Walter Carl . 2001 . New World Monkeys . Encyclopedia of Life Sciences . 1–4 . 2017-09-24.
• Silvestro . Daniele . Tejedor . Marcelo F. . Serrano Serrano . Martha L. . Loiseau . Oriane . Rossier . Victor . Rolland . Jonathan . Zizka . Alexander . Antonelli . Alexandre . Salamin . Nicolas . 2017 . Evolutionary history of New World monkeys revealed by molecular and fossil data . . 1–32 . 2017-09-24.
• Tejedor . Marcelo F . 2013 . Sistemática, evolución y paleobiogeografía de los primates Platyrrhini . Revista del Museo de La Plata . 20 . 20–39 . 2017-09-24.

Specific

• Bloch . Jonathan I. . Woodruff . Emily D. . Wood . Aaron R. . Rincón . Aldo F. . Harrington . Arianna R. . Morgan . Gary S. . Foster . David A. . Montes . Camilo . Jaramillo . Carlos A. . Nathan A. Jud . Douglas S. Jones . Bruce J. MacFadden . 2016 . First North American fossil monkey and early Miocene tropical biotic interchange . . 533 . 7602 . 243–246 . 10.1038/nature17415 . 27096364 . 4445687 . 2019-02-14.
• Bloch . Jonathan I. . Woodruff . Emily D. . Wood . Aaron R. . Rincón . Aldo F. . Harrington . Arianna R. . Morgan . Gary S. . Foster . David A. . Montes . Camilo . Jaramillo . Carlos A. . Nathan A. Jud . Douglas S. Jones . Bruce J. MacFadden . 2016b . Panamacebus - Supplementary Methods and Results . . 533 . 7602 . 1–28 . 2019-02-14.
• Bloch . Jonathan I. . Woodruff . Emily D. . Wood . Aaron R. . Rincón . Aldo F. . Harrington . Arianna R. . Morgan . Gary S. . Foster . David A. . Montes . Camilo . Jaramillo . Carlos A. . Nathan A. Jud . Douglas S. Jones . Bruce J. MacFadden . 2016c . Panamacebus - Supplementary Figures . . 533 . 7602 . 1–10 . 2019-02-14.
• Cartelle . Cástor . Walter Hartwig . Hartwig . Walter C. . 1996 . A new extinct primate among the Pleistocene megafauna of Bahia, Brazil . . 93 . 13 . 6405–6409 . 10.1073/pnas.93.13.6405 . 8692827 . 39035 . 2017-09-28 . free .
• Halenar . Lauren B. . Rosenberger . Alfred L. . 2013 . A closer look at the "Protopithecus" fossil assemblages: new genus and species from Bahia, Brazil . . 65 . 4 . 374–390 . 10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.07.008 . 23972780 . 2017-09-28.
• Horovitz . I. . MacPhee . R.D.E. . 1999 . The quaternary Cuban platyrrhine Paralouatta varonai and the origin of the Antillean monkeys . . 36 . 1 . 33–68 . 10.1006/jhev.1998.0259 . 9924133 . 2019-02-06.
• Luchterhand . Kubet . Kay . Richard F. . Madden . Richard H. . 1986 . Mohanamico hershkovitzi, gen. et sp. nov., un primate du Miocene moyen d' Amerique du Sud . . 303 . 1753–1758 . 2017-09-24.
• MacPhee . R.D.E. . M.A. . Iturralde Vinent . Gaffney . E.S. . 2003 . Domo de Zaza, an Early Miocene vertebrate locality in south-central Cuba, with notes on the tectonic evolution of Puerto Rico and the Mona Passage . . 3394 . 1–42 . 2019-02-06.
• Marivaux . Laurent . Adnet . Sylvain . Altamirano Sierra . Ali J. . Boivin . Myriam . Pujos . François . Ramdarshan . Anusha . Salas Gismondi . Rodolfo . Tejada . Julia . Antoine . Pierre-Olivier . 2016 . Neotropics provide insights into the emergence of New World monkeys: New dental evidence from the late Oligocene of Peruvian Amazonia . . 97 . 159–175 . 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.05.011 . 27457552 . 2019-02-04. 11336/182832 . free .
• Seiffert . Erik R. . Tejedor . Marcelo F. . Fleagle . John G.. Novo . Nelson M. . Cornejo . Fanny M. . Bond . Mariano . de Vries . Dorien . Campbell Jr. . Kenneth E. . 2020 . A parapithecid stem anthropoid of African origin in the Paleogene of South America . . 368 . 6487 . 194–197 . 10.1126/science.aba1135 . 32273470 . 215550773 . 2020-04-13.
• Tejedor . Marcelo F. . Rosenberger . Alfred L. . Cartelle . Cástor . 2008 . Nueva especie de Alouatta (Primates, Atelinae) del Pleistoceno Tardío de Bahía, Brasil . . 45 . 247–251 . 2017-09-28.

Further reading

• Book: [[Darin A. Croft|Croft]], Darin A . 2016 . Horned Armadillos and Rafting Monkeys: The Fascinating Fossil Mammals of South America . . 9780253020949 . 1–320 . 2017-10-21.
• Book: Fleagle . John G. . Rosenberger . Alfred L. . 2013 . The Platyrrhine Fossil Record . . 9781483267074 . 1–256 . 2017-10-21.
• Book: Hartwig . W.C. . Meldrum . D.J. . 2002 . The Primate Fossil Record - Miocene platyrrhines of the northern Neotropics . 175–188 . . 978-0-521-08141-2 . 2017-09-24 . Walter Hartwig .

Notes and References

1. Tejedor et al., 2013, p. 22
2. Rosenberger & Hartwig, 2001, p. 2
3. Lynch Alfaro et al., 2015, p. 519
4. https://dcpaleo.org/south-american-fossil-mammals/ South American Fossil Mammals
5. Bond et al., 2015, p. 538
6. Silvestro et al., 2017, p. 14
7. Seiffert et al., 2020, pp. 194–197