A COMPLETE SKELETON OF THE GIANT SOUTH-AMERICAN PRIMATE PROTOPITHECUS

A COMPLETE Skeleton of a large-bodied New World monkey has been found in Pleistocene cave deposits in the Brazilian state of Bahia. It demon strates an unprecedented combination of body size, locomotor and crani al morphology. Skeletal features indicate an animal of approximately 2 5 kg, more than twice the mass of any living South American monkey. We refer the specimen to Protopithecus brasiliensis Lund, 1838, a large Pleistocene primate originally represented by only a proximal femur an d distal humerus(1-4). The skeleton resembles species of two distinct New World monkey lineages. The cranium is modified for an enlarged voc al sac typical of living howler monkeys(5-7), and the postcranium incl udes suspensory and brachiating components of locomotion as seen in li ving spider and woolly spider monkeys(8). This skeleton confirms that adaptive diversity in neotropical primates was greater in the recent p ast, and that current interpretations of how their distinctive adaptat ions evolved should be revised.