On Atelines

Abstract

Looks can be deceiving. Although they arc the largest and most easily recognizable New World monkeys, atellnes are neither the most rludied nor the best understood. Important aspects of their behavlural ecology and evolutionary historv have yet to be rescarrhrd in the field or collected from the fossil record. which increases the likelihood of m a k ~ n g significant discoveries. For example, it has Iong been taken for granled that living atelines are the largest New World monkeys, b u ~ we have just found out that the surviving species are far from the largest. Their taxonomy has also been neglected; surprises may awiiit. in-sisht is inevitable. The most comprehensive systematic treatment of howler monkeys is over 60 years old (Lawrence. 1933): Froehlich's (199 1) study of spider inonkeys is the first assessment since the Kellugg and Goldman's revision of WWlI vintage (1944): woolly monkeys haven't been looked at since the Kennedy administration {Fooden, 1963). The wisdom of our overall research strategies, which we usually associate with lengthy gestation ~f not maturation, is also suspect: the woolly spider monkey r e ~ c h e d the very