The four endemic platyrrhine species of the Caribbean have been long extinct but questions remain about their phylogenetic relationships to one another and extant primate species. The authors of Ancient DNA of the Extinct Jamaican Monkey Xenothrix Reveals Extreme Insular Change within a Morphologically Conservative Radiation extracted aDNA from the Jamaican monkey Xenothrix mcgregori to help resolve these questions. They found that this species belongs to the Callicebinae (titi monkey) clade and diverged from its sister taxa, Cheracebus, approximately 11ma. Interestingly, Xenothrix mcgregori has a suite of derived traits but Callicebinae is known for being a morphologically conserved group. Furthermore, the authors found that there were at least two primate colonization events in the Caribbean.
Time-Calibrated Phylogeny of Several Platyrrhine Genera including Xenothrix
Elaine Miller – Potluck 2/25/2020
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