Xenothrix – Jamaican Monkey

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences had published a report on 12 November 2018 which was carried out by a team of experts from international conservation charity Zoological Society of London (ZSL), London's Natural History Museum (NHM), and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. As per the report monkeys have been colonised the Caribbean islands more than once.

The study reports an incredible discovery of how the unusual ecology of islands can dramatically influence animal evolution. Analysis of ancient DNA of a mysterious extinct monkey named Xenothrix displays strange and different body characteristics if compared to any other living monkey. It also has revealed that it was in fact most closely related to South America's titi monkeys (Callicebinae). They had made their way overwater to Jamaica, probably on floating vegetation; their bones reveal they subsequently underwent remarkable evolutionary change. Unlike to any other monkey in the world, Xenothrix was a slow-moving tree-dweller with relatively few teeth, and leg bones similar to a rodent. It is active during the day, extremely territorial and vocal, and live up to 12 years in the wild, with the father often caring for the young. It has an unusual appearance that has made it difficult for scientists to work out what it was related to and how it had evolved. There have been many debates on how Xenothrix looked like when some said that it looked like a kinkajou (Potos) and some said like a night monkey (Aotus). But the scientific team has been successful in extracting the first ever ancient DNA from an extinct Caribbean primate; uncovered from bones excavated in a Jamaican cave and providing important new evolutionary insights. It is believed that Xenothrix's ancestors colonised Jamaica from South America around 11 million years ago, probably after being stranded on natural rafts of vegetation that were washed out of the mouths of large South American rivers. Evolution happens in many unexpected ways in island environments, producing miniature elephants, gigantic birds, and sloth-like primates. Such examples put a very different spin on the old cliché that 'anatomy is destiny’. Various other animals, such as large rodents called hutias (Capromyidae) that still survive on some Caribbean islands today, probably colonised the region in the same way. In addition to this, the Caribbean also had the world's highest rate of mammal extinction since the end of the last ice age glaciation, likely caused by hunting and habitat loss by humans, and predation by invasive mammals brought by early settlers.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181112191645.htm