THE TEETH OF A MONKEY FOUND IN CUBA 



By GERRIT S. MILLER. Jr. 



(With One Plate) 



In 191 1 Ameghino described as Montaneia anthropomorpha a 

 supposed new genus and species of American monkey from Cuba/ 

 He based his account on a nearly complete set of mandibular teeth 

 found associated with human remains in a cave near Sancti Spiritus. 

 Dr. Louis Montane, the discoverer of these teeth, brought the 

 specimens to Washington in December, 191 5, and asked me to com- 

 pare them with the South American material in the National A'luseum. 

 On making this comparison we at once saw that the likeness of the 

 Cuban teeth to those of Ateles, noticed by Ameghino,^ amounted to 

 such complete identity that in the absence of further evidence 

 Montaneia could not be regarded as a distinct genus. The exact 

 agreement in all essential characters between the type of Montaneia 

 and an Ateles from Tehuantepec is shown by the accompanying 

 photographs (plate i). The only structural difference that can be 

 observed is the unusual development in the Cuban specimen of the 

 hypoconulid or '' fifth cusp " in each of the molars, a peculiarity 

 which caused Ameghino to see in the dentition a resemblance to that 

 of man and the higher anthropoids.^ Examination of numerous speci- 

 mens shows that the hypoconulid in Ateles varies so much in size and 

 distinctness that its degree of development must be considered as an 

 individual or specific character and nothing more. 



Ameghino remarks that the discovery made by Doctor Montane 

 is noteworthy in view of the fact that no monkeys now occur in 

 Cuba (p. 318). Not only do the islands of the Greater Antilles lack 

 members of this group, but all * the living and recently extinct 

 mammals yet found on them appear to be related to a South Ameri- 



^ An. Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, ser. 3, Vol. 13. p. 316. 



' " Se parecen a los de Ateles y mas todavia a los del hombre '' (p. 318). 



' " La conformacion de las coronas de las muelas persistentes se parece a 

 los monos antropomorfos y al hombre. y todavia mas a este ultimo que a 

 aquellos " (p. 317). 



* With the exception of the Jamaican Orycoinys, an animal whose history 

 has almost certainly been different from that of the Antillean insectivores, 

 ground-sloths, and hystricine rodents. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 66, No. 13 



