infraorder of mammals From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New World monkeys are the families of primates which are found in Central and South America. The families are ranked together as the Ceboidea superfamily, the only living platyrrhine superfamily. They differ from the Old World monkeys and apes, which are Catarrhini.
| New World monkeys | |
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| Black-headed spider monkey | |
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| Parvorder: | Platyrrhini Geoffroy, 1812 |
| Superfamily: | Ceboidea |
About 40 million years ago, the simians separated into the groups: the Platyrrhini (New World monkeys) and Catarrhini (apes and Old World monkeys).[2] The key question is how did the early monkeys get to the Americas? There is no evidence for either of the two possible routes. Route one is across the then less wide Atlantic. Route two is across Asia, across the Bering Strait, and down through North America.[3]
There are some big differences between the two groups of monkeys. New World monkeys have flatter noses with nostrils facing to the side. Most do not have full colour vision,[4] they have a different dental formula, many form monogamous pair bonds, with paternal care for the young, mostly, twin births are common,[5] and their thumbs are not opposable. The Atelidae family have long tails that can grip to things.
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