Early platyrrhines of southern South America

FLEAGLE, J.G.; TEJEDOR, M.F.

The Primate Fossil Record

Cambridge University Press

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2002; p. 161 - 174

The fossil record of New World monkeys in southern South America extends from the Bolivian Altiplano at Salla, 15° below the equator, to numerous surfside localities in southernmost Argentina barely north of Tierra del Fuego. Within this vast area are 15 more or less distinct sites that have yielded close to 300 platyrrhine fossils, placed in eight genera and ten species. The vast majority of these are in the southern part of Argentina, known colloquially as Patagonia. The absolute ages of South American land mammal ages, and the individual localities yielding fossil primates, have been a source of continuous debate and successive upward revisions during the past three decades. By the most recent dates, the primate-bearing deposits from southern South America seem to lie within a 10-million-year span from approximately 25 Ma to 15 Ma. These include the earliest fossil New World monkeys yet recovered. They probably lie near the base of several extant lineages.