New World monkey

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.

• Platyrrhini: the New World monkeys.^[1]
  Superfamily Ceboidea
  • Family Cebidae: capuchins and squirrel monkeys.
    Subfamily Callitrichinae: marmosets and tamarins.
    Subfamily Aotinae: night or owl monkeys
  • Family Pitheciidae: titis, sakis and uakaris
  • Family Atelidae: howler, spider, muriqui (woolly spider) and woolly monkeys

New World monkeys
Black-headed spider monkey
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Suborder:	Haplorhini
Infraorder:	Simiiformes
Parvorder:	Platyrrhini Geoffroy, 1812
Superfamily:	Ceboidea
Range of New World monkeys

Origin

About 40 million years ago, the simians separated into 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, the more probable, is across the then less wide Atlantic. Route two is also possible, crossing Asia, the Bering Strait, and south 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.

Related pages

• List of New World monkey species