A NEW EXTINCT PRIMATE AMONG THE PLEISTOCENE MEGAFAUNA OF BAHIA, BRAZIL

A nearly complete skeleton of a robust-bodied New World monkey that re sembles living spider monkeys was recovered from undisturbed Pleistoce ne deposits in the Brazilian state of Bahia. The skeleton displays the highly specialized postcranial pattern typical of spider and woolly s pider monkeys and shares cranial similarities to the spider monkey exc lusively. It is generically distinct on the basis of its robustness (> 20 kg) and on the shape of its braincase, This new genus indicates tha t New World monkeys nearly twice the size of those living today were p art of the mammalian biomass of southern Amazonia in the late Pleistoc ene. The discovery of this specimen expands the known adaptive diversi ty of New World monkeys and demonstrates that they underwent body size expansion in the terminal Pleistocene, as did many other types of mam mals.