science

Hispaniola monkey

Hispaniola monkey is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hispaniola monkey rather than just read about it. In short: The Hispaniola monkey (Antillothrix bernensis) is an extinct primate that was endemic on the island of Hispaniola, in the present-day Dominican Republic. It became extinct sometime during the Holocene.

Key takeaways

Hispaniola monkey belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hispaniola monkey to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hispaniola monkey from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Hispaniola monkey (Antillothrix bernensis) is an extinct primate that was endemic on the island of Hispaniola, in the present-day Dominican Republic. It became extinct sometime during the Holocene.

Description Horovitz and MacPhee developed the hypothesis, first proposed by MacPhee et al., that all the Antillean monkeys (the others being the two Cuban monkey species of genus Paralouatta, and the Jamaican monkey, Xenothrix mcgregori) belonged to a monophyletic group linked most closely with the modern genus Callicebus. They later assigned the Antillean monkeys to the tribe Xenotrichini – the sister group of the tribe Callicebini with extensive anatomical comparisons and by extending their parsimony analysis using PAUP*. They maintained that the monophyly of the Antillean monkeys was still supported in the most parsimonious trees, but in slightly less parsimonious trees, Aotus appeared to be linked with Xenothrix.

Skull discovery In July 2009, Walter Pickel found a A. bernensis skull while diving in underwater caves. The skull was found in the La Jeringa Cave of Cotubanamá National Park. The skull, long bones and ribs were recovered by Walter Pickel and Curt Bowen in October 2009 under the supervision of the Dominican Republic and Alfred L. Rosenberger from Brooklyn College. The discovery supported the MacPhee et al. hypothesis of a monophyletic origin of the Antilles monkeys. This 2009 discovery of the skull suggested that these primates were diurnal, due to their relatively smaller ocular orbits.

New specimens published in 2024 New specimens recovered in 2018 from Cueva Macho included four crania and three mandibles. Both a cranium and mandible exhibited absent wisdom teeth, which is rare in most primates. Though previously, hypotheses regarding smaller relative brain size than normal and sexual dimorphism had been posited, these new specimens evidence neither of these claims. Instead, the authors posit that Hispaniolan monkeys were "a morphologically variable but monomorphic species."

Chronology The oldest specimen of Antillothrix bernensis dates to around 1.32 million years ago, during the Early Pleistocene. The holotype specimen was dated to around 3850 ± 135 radiocarbon years Before Present.

Ecology Antillothrix is suggested to have been a generalised frugivore. It was likely a capable climber.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hispaniola monkey

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hispaniola monkey claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hispaniola monkey before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hispaniola monkey ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hispaniola monkey

In research: Hispaniola monkey appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hispaniola monkey in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hispaniola monkey is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Endemic fauna of Hispaniola, Extinct animals of the Dominican Republic, Fossils of the Dominican Republic, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hispaniola monkey outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hispaniola monkey in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hispaniola monkey means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hispaniola monkey out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hispaniola monkey in simple terms?

Why does Hispaniola monkey matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hispaniola monkey?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hispaniola monkey.