News From the Field

Reconstructing the New World monkey family tree


January 3, 2014

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A Duke University scientist has reconstructed a comprehensive family tree of the monkeys that arrived in South America 37 or more million years ago and their subsequent evolution. The research uncovered several patterns, suggesting, among other things, that sea-level rise and the arrival of humans likely caused the extinction of monkeys native to the Caribbean islands, and that monkeys once lived in the extreme southern reaches of South America.Full Story

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Duke University

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