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Tremacebus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tremacebus
Temporal range: Early Miocene (Colhuehuapian)
~21.0–17.5 Ma
Skull of Tremacebus harringtoni
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Family: Aotidae
Genus: Tremacebus
Hershkovitz, 1974
Species:
T. harringtoni
Binomial name
Tremacebus harringtoni
(Rusconi, 1933)

Tremacebus is an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Early Miocene (Colhuehuapian in the SALMA classification). The type species is T. harringtoni.

Description

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Tremacebus was about 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length, and would have resembled a modern night monkey, to which it may have been related,[1] though possibly a stem aotid.[2] However, its eyes appear to have been smaller than the modern species, CT scans of the cranium suggest a relatively small olfactory bulb and poor sense of smell, compared with night monkeys. These features suggest that it may not have been nocturnal.[3] It had an estimated body mass of 1.8 kg (4.0 lb).[2]

Only a few fossils have been found, including a skull from the Sarmiento Formation, Patagonia.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 289. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
  2. ^ a b Silvestro, Daniele; Tejedor, Marcelo F.; Serrano Serrano, Martha L.; Loiseau, Oriane; Rossier, Victor; Rolland, Jonathan; Zizka, Alexander; Antonelli, Alexandre; Salamin, Nicolas (2017). "Evolutionary history of New World monkeys revealed by molecular and fossil data" (PDF). BioRxiv: 1–32. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  3. ^ Kay, Richard (2002). "Tremacebus harringtoni, Fossil Primate". Digimorph. UT Austin. Retrieved 2009-01-31.
  4. ^ Tremacebus at Fossilworks.org
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