Paralouatta varonai

Paralouatta varonai is an extinct monkey that lived on the island of Cuba in the late Quaternary. It was described in 1991 from a nearly complete cranium plus teeth and postcranial bones found in the Cueva del Mono, a cave in Pinar del Río Province. Its body mass is estimated at about 8.4 kilograms, a case of island gigantism, and the postcranial skeleton suggests it was partly terrestrial, the most ground-going platyrrhine known. The describers first proposed a close link to the howler monkeys, then dental evidence tied it to the other Caribbean monkeys Xenothrix, Insulacebus and Antillothrix, and later research restored its closeness to Alouatta. It is one of two species of Paralouatta; the other, Paralouatta marianae, is far older and also from Cuba.