Paralouatta Temporal range:
Early Miocene-
Quaternary
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Paralouatta marianae skull | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Primates |
Suborder: | Haplorhini |
Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
Family: | Atelidae |
Subfamily: | Alouattinae |
Genus: | †
Paralouatta Rivero & Arredondo 1991 |
Type species | |
†Paralouatta varonai Rivero & Arredondo 1991
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Species | |
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Paralouatta is a platyrrhine genus that currently contains two extinct species of small primates that lived on the island of Cuba.
Paralouatta varonai was described from a nearly complete cranium from the late Quaternary 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. The initial description of the cranium included a proposal that Paralouatta varonai was a close Caribbean relative of the extant Alouatta ( howler monkeys) of Central and South America, [1] but this taxonomic placement was called into question with the analysis of the dental remains. [2] Based on shared similarities with the three other Caribbean monkeys, Xenothrix mcgregori, Insulacebus toussaintiana, and Antillothrix bernensis, MacPhee and Horovitz have proposed that the Caribbean primates are part of a monophyletic radiation which entered the Caribbean at the Oligocene– Miocene boundary. Further research confirms this assessment and places these three species in the tribe Xenotrichini. [3] However, more recent research restores its close relationship with Alouatta. [4] The postcranial morphology of Paralouatta suggests that it was partly terrestrial, [5] and a likely example of island gigantism. [6]
A second species of Paralouatta (P. marianae) has also been described from the Burdigalian (~18 million years old) Lagunitas Formation and is the largest Neotropic primate known of that epoch. [6]
Paralouatta had an estimated body mass of 8.4 kg (19 lb). [4] Analysis of postcranial morphology suggests that Paralouatta was at least somewhat semi-terrestrial, making it the most terrestrial platyrrhine genus known. [7]