atelines
atelinae latin

The primary distinguishing feature of the atelines is their long prehensile tail which can support their entire body weight.

Atelines live on the American continent from southern Mexico through central Brazil and Bolivia.

Like other atelines, they are found in tropical forests of Central and South America, from southern Mexico to Brazil.

It is found in most primates though not in the family of New World monkeys that includes spider and woolly monkeys called atelines.

Atelines are frugivore-folivores, their diet consisting primarily of fruits, seeds and leaves, with Ateles being the most frugivorous, fruits comprising over 80% of their diet.

The degree of sexual dimorphism varies throughout different families and subfamilies of the primate species such Asaotines, Colobines, Atelines, Great apes, and Cercopithecines.

Theories abound about the evolution of the atelines; one theory is they are most closely related to the woolly spider monkeys (Bractyteles), and most likely split from the woolly monkeys (Lagothrix and Oreonax) in the South American lowland forest, to evolve their unique locomotory system.

Spider monkeys of the genus Ateles are New World monkeys in the subfamily Atelinae, family Atelidae.

More recent molecular evidence suggests the Atelinae split in the middle to late Miocene (13 Ma), separating spider monkeys from the woolly spider monkeys and the woolly monkeys.

It is a member of the subfamily Atelinae, which includes the spider monkeys, woolly monkeys and muriquis, and of the genus Ateles, which contains all the spider monkeys.