Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Primates > Atelidae > Protopithecus

Protopithecus

Synonyms: Propithecus

Wikipedia Abstract

Protopithecus is an extinct genus of large New World monkey that lived during the Pleistocene. Fossils have been found in the Toca da Boa Vista cave of Brazil, as well as other locales in the country. At an estimated weight of 22.6 kg (50 lb), it was the largest New World monkey known to exist. With slightly longer arms than legs, Protopithecus resembled spider monkeys, but its limb bones were nearly twice as thick. Its head was more similar to a howler monkey's, which has a lower jaw that juts forward to accommodate an apple-size vocal sac. As such, Protopithecus may have been able to howl just like them.
View Wikipedia Record: Protopithecus

Species

External References

Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0