Before European arrival , Jamaica , Cuba , and Hispaniola were home to several monkey specie . The fogey of these lost order Primates of the Caribbean have bewilder zoologists , with conflicting theories of how they fit into the monkey kinfolk tree . Newly convalesce DNA has demo the extinct Jamaican monkeyXenothrix mcgregoriwas intimately related to South AmericanCheracebus , a genus of titi scalawag , but evolved dramatically once it got to the island .
island riotous - track evolution . Island clustering like the Galapagos can leave to arresting variety as lifeforms evolve in different directions in semi - closing off . However , few mammals made it to ocean archipelago prior to humans provide transferral . Consequently , we know little about how our fellow furred beast respond to these environments .
This has made the Caribbean ’s monkeys , thought to have reached the islands by raft on vegetation , just astheir ancestorsdid between continents , a topic of peculiar interest . Xenothrixis a particularly challenging instance . We are used to rascal being speedy creatures , butXenothrix’sbody and teeth indicate it was a slow - make a motion tree diagram - dweller , although unlike slothfulness it fed on fruit , not leafage .
Professor Samuel Turveyof the Zoological Society of London has excerpt DNA from Xenothrix bones for the first metre . InProceedings of the National Academy of SciencesTurvey and Colorado - author report the DNA suggestsXenothrix’sancestors part from South American titi tinker 11 million year ago , presumptively around the sentence they make it on Jamaica .
Xenothrixhad disconnected zoologists previously because of features such as its small size , deficiency of a third grinder , and leg pearl like rodents . Further complicating the doubt of where to place it was its differences from other Caribbean monkeys , which were expect to be its close relative .
However , Turvey and co - authors have reason rapscallion colonized the island at least twice , withXenothrixno more closely related to Caribbean monkeys from the earlier migration than it was to many mainland species . Upon get on district with few competitors , the monkeys grab a mixed bag of evolutionary niches and radically changed their body shapes to suit .
“ This new apprehension of the evolutionary history ofXenothrixshows that phylogenesis can take unexpected paths when beast colonize island and are scupper to new environments , ” Tovey said in astatement . “ However , the extinguishing ofXenothrix , which develop on an island without any native mammal predator , highlights the with child exposure of unique island biodiversity in the face of human impacts ”
The animate being of the Caribbean support many extinction when humankind arrived several thousand age ago , and again with European colonisation . Between these two , the region has suffered the high-pitched rate of post - glaciation mammalian extinction in the populace . With specimens dating to just 900 geezerhood ago , it seems likelyXenothrixwas a dupe of the 2d wave .
