Paralouatta varonai (Cuban Monkey)

[Melanie]

The Cuban Monkey (†Paralouatta varonai) is an extinct species of small primate that lived on the island of Cuba.

The Cuban fossil primate, Paralouatta varonai was described from a nearly complete cranium in 1991. This cranium and a number of isolated teeth and postcranial bones were found in a cave site in Pinar del Rio 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 has been called into question with the analysis of the dental remains.[2] Based on shared similarities with the two other Caribbean primates Xenothrix mcgregori 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. More recent research confirms this assessment and places these three species in the tribe Xenotrichini.[3]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Monkey

Paralouatta varonai could have survived until 3000 BC (German Wikipedia)

[Melanie]

bucardo said:

www.amnh.org/science/biodiversity/extinction/ResourcesBestiaryBgeo.html

Sub-class Placentalia
Order Primates

Family Pithecidae (titis and related New World monkeys)

Species Paralouatta varonai



Endemic monkeys lived on several of the Greater Antilles during the Quaternary. Paralouatta varonai, which lived in Cuba, was a relatively large species that may have weighed as much as a living howler monkey (Alouatta, 15-20 lb). All extant platyrrhines are exclusively arboreal, but some limb bones of Paralouatta are remarkably similar to those of monkeys that spend part of the time on the ground (e.g., langur monkeys, genus Presbytis). Bones of Paralouatta have only been found in cave sites in one area of western Cuba, the Sierra de los Organos. It has not yet been established when this species became extinct; it may have died out comparatively early. None of the material recovered from the cave sites is associated with evidence of humans.

See also: MacPhee, R.D.E., 1996. The Greater Antillean monkeys. Revista de Ciència 18: 13-32.
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Somebody had more information about this extinct primate?

[another specialist]

We describe recently recovered dental and mandibular remains of the Cuban platyrrhine Paralouatta varonai, previously known from the holotype only (a nearly complete skull with very worn teeth). We also expand on the original description of the type specimen.

Paralouatta is one of three extinct taxa of Greater Antillean Quaternary monkeys known from craniodental remains. The other two, Xenothrix mcgregori and Antillothrix bernensis, occurred in Jamaica and Hispaniola, respectively. It has been common practice to assume that Antillean monkeys were more closely related to individual mainland taxa than to each other. Thus, P. varonai was thought to be related to Alouatta; Antillothrix bernensis to Saimiri or Cebus; and X. mcgregori to Callicebus, or to callitrichines, or even to be of unknown affinity. With the discovery of well-preserved dental remains of Paralouatta, it can now be ascertained that this species was in fact very different from Alouatta. Cladistic analysis reveals a sister-group relationship between Antillothrix and Paralouatta, followed on the cladogram by Xenothrix and Callicebus (last taxon being the closest mainlaind relative of the Antillean clade). This conclusion has an important biogeographic implication: recognition of an Antillean clade, as advocated here, assumes only one primate colonization from the South American mainland, not several as previously believed. Copyright 1999 Academic Press

www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ap/hu/1999/00000036/00000001/art00259

[another specialist]

Postcranial Remains of the Extinct Monkeys of the
Greater Antilles, with Evidence for Semiterrestriality
in Paralouatta1
R.D.E. MACPHEE2 AND JEFF MELDRUM3

digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/5793/1/N3516.pdf

[another specialist]

from above

[another specialist]

[another specialist]

[another specialist]

[another specialist]

Primate Adaptation and Evolution
By John G. Fleagle

[another specialist]

The Primate Fossil Record By Walter Carl Hartwig

[another specialist]

Walker's Primates of the World
By Ronald M. Nowak, Ernest Pillsbury Walker, Russell A. Mittermeier, William R. Konstant, Anthony B. Rylands

[surroundx]

MacPhee, R. D. E. (1993). From Cuba: A mandible of Paralouatta. Evolutionary Anthropology 2(2): 42.

[Sebbe]

Updated checklist of endemic terrestrial mammals of the West Indies

Paralouatta varonai, Rivero de la Calle and
Arredondo, 1991. Jour. Hum. Evol. 21:1.
COMMON NAME Galeran monkey, Cuban
monkey
TYPE LOCALITY Cueva del Mono Fósil, located
at the slope South of Sierra de Galeras, Cordillera
de Guaniguanico, Municipality of Viñales in Pinar
del Río, Cuba
DISTRIBUTION Known only from the type
locality and Cueva Alta
STATUS Extinct
COMMENT A late Quaternary monkey judging by
the associated fauna and considered semi terrestrial
(MacPhee and Meldrum 2006). See Horovitz and
MacPhee (this volume).

www.researchgate.net/publication/273831338_UPDATED_CHECKLIST_OF_ENDEMIC_TERRESTRIAL_MAMMALS_OF_THE_WEST_INDIES

[surroundx]

Herrera-Uria, Jane et al. (2015). Type specimens housed in the National Museum of Natural History of Cuba. Solenodon 12: 84-123.

[Sebbe]

Biodiversity and conservation of Cuban mammals: past, present, and invasive species.

Land mammals of the Caribbean Islands biodiversity hotspot have suffered a high rate of extinction since human arrival, principally in the last 500 years since colonialism began. Here, we present an extensive review and bibliography of this topic in Cuba, including details regarding the surviving endemic species of volant and terrestrial mammals and locations of species on 121 protected areas. We analyzed patterns of species richness, endemism, body mass, diet, habitat, geographic distribution of the observed richness, conservation threats, and possible causes and threats to future extinction. Cuban mammal biodiversity is comprised of 59 native species, 24 extinct species and 35 extant species, most of which are endemic to the Cuban archipelago. We compared the threats of habitat destruction and hunting, with emphasis on invasive mammal species as drivers of historical extinction in Cuba. A total of 44 mammal species have been introduced since 1509, with 33 invasive species living in the wild and exerting differing degrees of impact, principally by predation and competition. Additionally, we evaluated interactions among invasive and native mammals, emphasizing predation of feral cats upon Solenodon cubanus, Capromys pilorides, and other small endemic vertebrates as determined from analyses of scat contents. We found that black rats (Rattus rattus) reach densities of 147–322 individuals/ha in Solenodon habitat, thus likely are major competitors for food and refuges to these evolutionarily distinct and endangered Cuban mammals.

www.researchgate.net/publication/319213521_Biodiversity_and_conservation_of_Cuban_mammals_past_present_and_invasive_species

[Sebbe]

Assessing the role of humans in Greater Antillean land vertebrate extinctions: new insights from Cuba.

The Caribbean archipelago is a hotspot of biodiversity characterized by a high rate of extinction. Recent studies have examined these losses, but the causes of the Antillean Late Quaternary vertebrate extinctions, and especially the role of humans, are still unclear. Previous results provide support for climate-related and human-induced extinctions, but often downplaying other complex bio-ecological factors that are difficult to model or to detect from the fossil and archaeological record. Here, we discuss Caribbean vertebrate extinctions and the potential role of humans derived from new and existing fossil and archaeological data from Cuba. Our results indicate that losses of Cuba’s native fauna occurred in waves: one during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, a second during the middle Holocene, and a third one during the last 2 ka, combining the arrival of agroceramists and later of Europeans. The coexistence of now-extinct species with multiple cultural groups in Cuba for over 4 ka implies that Cuban indigenous nonceramic cultures exerted far fewer extinction pressures to native fauna than the later agroceramists and Europeans that followed. This suggests a determinant value to increased technological sophistication and demographics as plausible effective extinction drivers. Beyond looking at dates of first human arrival alone, future studies should also consider cultural diversity with attention to different bio-ecological factors that influence these biodiversity changes.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.27.922237v3.full