How Did Tree-Top Monkey Grow Twice Size During The Pleistocene?

C

common_sense_seeker

Bicho Voador & Bicho Sugador
Valued Senior Member
There's a cave in Brazil where remains of much larger than normal species of monkey were found. How did they grow so big? Were the trees twice as big, with twice size fruit? That's the only possible scenario isn't it?? Discoveries Under Brazil

The skull of Caipora bambuiorum, one of the two complete primate skeletons recovered from Toca da Boa Vista. It closely resembles the living spider monkey, but is more than twice the size, suggesting that South American monkeys participated fully in the mega-faunal phenomenon of the last Ice Age.

Frontal view of the crania of Protopithecus (left) and Caipora (right), both from Toca da Boa Vista. They resemble living South American monkeys that inhabit the top levels of the tropical forest canopy, but they were significantly larger than any living species. Further exploration of Toca da Boa Vista hopefully will yield more primate species that also were quite large compared to modern monkeys.
 
I've realised that ice age aridity must be the cause of rainforest stability, with trees able to grow bigger and taller, and therefore grow bigger fruit.
 
cant quite remember what show it was but they did it with paranas.. they increased the atmospheric pressure to 2x the normal and the fish grew MUCH MUCH bigger than they normally do.. i think they were trying to link the reason why animals back then got soo much bigger
 
sifreak21 said:
cant quite remember what show it was but they did it with paranas.. they increased the atmospheric pressure to 2x the normal and the fish grew MUCH MUCH bigger than they normally do.. i think they were trying to link the reason why animals back then got soo much bigger
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Interesting stuff. I think much drier conditions creating a more stable bed for rainforest trees to grow in is reasonable. Also reduced ocean temperatures would mean less evaporation, less cloudcover and less wind with more sunshine.
 
aww this is irritating me i cant seem to find the video of them but they grew over 2times the normal size and all they did was raise them in a pressurized tank that was set to 2x our atmospheric pressure
 
sifreak21 said:
aww this is irritating me i cant seem to find the video of them but they grew over 2times the normal size and all they did was raise them in a pressurized tank that was set to 2x our atmospheric pressure
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How do you account for the twice size monkeys with this idea though? The fish experiment is interesting as well..
 
atmospheric pressure would change the pressure in water as on land in they show they linked how it all worked. they just used fish for the experiment because they grow to full size much faster
 
I measured the greatest length of the skull (front-teeth to back of skull) that is displayed on the website you linked to:

tempmonkey.jpg


252 pixels in the image is equal to 252/20 = 12.6 cm in reality, which doesn't strike me as excessively large.

Adult Spider Monkeys average 50.8 cm in length (head+body) excluding the tail, with some growing up to 66 cm in length.

See this image of a modern Spider Monkey:

tempmonkey2.jpg


Using the average head+body length of a Spider Monkey this monkeys skull is (57/225)*50.8 = 12.87 cm long.

:shrug:
 
Article said:
Frontal view of the crania of Protopithecus (left) and Caipora (right), both from Toca da Boa Vista. They resemble living South American monkeys that inhabit the top levels of the tropical forest canopy, but they were significantly larger than any living species.
Click to expand...

They have not specified how large the skulls were. Naturally, I'm a skeptic.
Do you have any other sources?
 
There are various reasons why a species would grow larger. Some geographically isolated species, for instance on islands, grow larger (while others grow smaller). It could be the result of sexual selection (competition between males), or the need to digest larger amounts of less nutritious plant matter (gorillas).
 
spidergoat said:
There are various reasons why a species would grow larger. Some geographically isolated species, for instance on islands, grow larger (while others grow smaller). It could be the result of sexual selection (competition between males), or the need to digest larger amounts of less nutritious plant matter (gorillas).
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Maybe but what about "much bigger than usual" tree-top monkeys in the Amazon rainforst then?
 
I think that the research science teams word is better than yours unfortunately. They state quite clearly that skeletons of tree-top dwelling monkeys are found to be significantly bigger in the pleistocene. The twice as big skeleton could belong to a nearer ground variety of monkey. There is a conection with the de loys ape imo.
 
common_sense_seeker said:
I think that the research science teams word is better than yours unfortunately. They state quite clearly that skeletons of tree-top dwelling monkeys are found to be significantly bigger in the pleistocene. The twice as big skeleton could belong to a nearer ground variety of monkey. There is a conection with the de loys ape imo.
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Did you see the pictures and the calculations? You cannot seriously tell me that the skull they found is significantly bigger than I calculated.
And they didn't say that the skeleton was twice the size of that of a living Spider Monkey. They said the skull itself was twice the size of that of a living Spider Monkey.

Also, you didn't answer my question about whether or not you have an additional source.
 
It's an open and shut case imo. I've just been self-diagnosed aspergers. Aridity is the key. Wetlands benefited, scrubland turned to grassland. It was more productive during the ice age imo.

No I don't have any further links.
 
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