by Alfred L. Rosenberger (Author)
A comprehensive account of the origins, evolution, and behavior of South and Central American primates
New World Monkeys
brings to life the beauty of evolution and biodiversity in action among
South and Central American primates, who are now at risk. These
tree-dwelling rainforest inhabitants display an unparalleled variety in
size, shape, hands, feet, tails, brains, locomotion, feeding, social
systems, forms of communication, and mating strategies. Primatologist
Alfred Rosenberger, one of the foremost experts on these mammals,
explains their fascinating adaptations and how they came about.
New World Monkeys
provides a dramatic picture of the sixteen living genera of New World
monkeys and a fossil record that shows that their ancestors have lived
in the same ecological niches for up to 20 million years―only to now
find themselves imperiled by the extinction crisis. Rosenberger also
challenges the argument that these primates originally came to South
America from Africa by floating across the Atlantic on a raft of
vegetation some 45 million years ago. He explains that they are more
likely to have crossed via a land bridge that once connected Western
Europe and Canada at a time when many tropical mammals transferred
between the northern continents.
Based on the most current findings, New World Monkeys offers the first synthesis of decades of fieldwork and laboratory and museum research conducted by hundreds of scientists.