Any of several small, brightly colored arboreal monkeys of the genus
Saimiri, widely distributed in South and Central American tropical forest
regions, having a white face with black nose and mouth, short fur, and a long
nonprehensile tail.
Squirrel monkeys live in the tropical forests of Central and
South America.
Most species have para or allopatric ranges in the Amazon, while S.
oerstedii is found disjunctly in Costa Rica and Panama.
Squirrel monkey fur
is short and close, colored olive at the shoulders and yellowish orange on its
back and extremities. Their throat and the ears are white and their mouths
are black. The upper part of their head is hairy. This black and white face
gives them their German name, skull monkeys.
Squirrel monkeys grow to
25 to 35 cm, plus a 35 to 42 cm tail. They weigh 750 to 1100g.
Remarkably, the brain mass to body mass ratio for squirrel monkeys is
1:17, which gives them the largest brain, proportionately, of all the primates.
Humans have a 1:35 ratio.
Female squirrel monkeys have a pseudo penis that
they use to display dominance over smaller monkeys, much like the way the
male squirrel monkeys display their dominance.
Like most of their New World monkey relatives, squirrel monkeys are diurnal
and arboreal. Unlike the other New World monkeys, their tail is not used for
climbing, but as a kind of balancing pole and also as a tool. Their movements
in the branches are extremely speedy.
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