Patasola magdalenae

Patasola magdalenae is the type species of Patasola, an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Middle Miocene, in the Laventan stage of the South American land mammal ages, roughly 13.8 to 11.8 million years ago. Its remains come from the La Venta area of the Honda Group in Colombia, where fossils turned up in the La Victoria and Villavieja Formations above and below the Monkey Beds. The type specimen is the mandible of a juvenile. Patasola was a small primate, estimated at about 480 grams, close in size to the living lion tamarins, and is described as insectivorous and frugivorous, a mixed diet of insects and fruit. The genus is placed in the Callitrichidae, the family of marmosets and tamarins, after an early description as an intermediate between that family and the squirrel monkeys of the genus Saimiri. The name honours the Patasola, a one-legged forest spirit of the Gran Tolima region of Colombia, and the species epithet refers to the Magdalena River valley where the fossils were found.