Top 5 Amazing New World Monkeys

New World Monkeys are the five families of primates that are found in Central and South America and portions of Mexico: Callitrichidae, Cebidae, Aotidae, Pitheciidae, and Atelidae. The five families are ranked together as the Platyrrhini parvorder and the Ceboidea superfamily, which are essentially synonymous since Ceboidea is the only living platyrrhine superfamily. Some of the new world monkeys are listed below :

1. Common Marmoset

The common marmoset is a New World monkey. It originally lived on the Northeastern coast of Brazil. Common marmosets are very small monkeys with relatively long tails. Males and females are of similar size with males being slightly larger.

Males have an average height of 188 mm while female have 185 mm. The pelage of the marmoset is multicolored, being sprinkled with brown, grey and yellow. It also has white ear tufts and the tail is banded. Common marmosets feed on gum, sap, latex and resin.

Raimond Spekking /CC BY-SA 4.0 | Common Marmoset

2. Black Tufted Marmoset

The black-tufted marmoset is a species of New World monkey. It lives primarily in the Neo-tropical gallery forests of the Brazilian Central Plateau. The black-tufted marmoset is characterized by black tufts of hair around their ears. The black-tufted marmoset reaches a size of 19 to 22 cm and weight up to 350 g. It typically lives in family groups of 2 to 14. They eat small arthropods, molluscs, bird eggs, baby birds and small vertebrates.

Wagner Machado Carlos Lemes /CC BY 2.0 | Black Tufted Marmoset

3. Buffy Headed Marmoset

The buffy-headed marmoset is a rare species of marmoset. It is endemic to the rainforests of south-eastern Brazil. The average weight of the adult is from 119 g to 710 g. The buffy-headed marmoset is known primarily for eating fruits, gum, bird eggs and plant exudates.

Due to their small size, buffy-headed marmosets are susceptible to a wide range of predators. Buffy-headed marmosets avoid aerial predators through low-intensity alarm signals, emitting soft, closed-mouth whistles to warn other group members.

Giovanni Mari /CC BY-SA 2.0 | Buffy Headed Marmoset

4. Silvery Marmoset

The silvery marmoset is a New World monkey that lives in the eastern Amazon Rainforest in Brazil and northeastern Bolivia. The fur of the silvery marmoset is colored whitish silver-grey except for a dark tail.

Remarkable are its naked, flesh-colored ears which stand out from the skin. They reach a size of 18 cm to 28 cm and weight from 300 g to 400 g. They live together in small groups. The diet of the silvery marmosets consists of tree sap. They also eat bird eggs, fruit, insects and small vertebrates.

Karra Rothery /CC BY 2.0 | Silvery Marmoset

5. Golden Lion Tamarin

The golden lion tamarin also known as the golden marmoset. It is a small New World monkey of the family Callitrichidae. These are native to the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil.

The golden lion tamarin gets its name from its bright reddish orange pelage and the extra long hairs around the face and ears. It is believed that the tamarin gets its hair color from sunlight and carotenoids in its food. It is typically around 261 mm in length and around 620 g in weight.