Woolly Spider Monkey Skull

Description

Woolly Spider Monkey Skull Replica measures 3.7 inches. Woolly Spider Monkey Skull is museum quality polyurethane resin cast. Skull is male. 2-part skull (separate cranium & jaw). Made in USA. Cast of original California Academy of Sciences specimen. Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home décor skull, or office décor skull.

The Muriquis, also known as Woolly Spider Monkey or Brachyteles arachnoides, are the monkeys of the genus Brachyteles. They are closely related to both the spider monkeys and the woolly monkeys.

The two species are the southern (B. arachnoides) and northern (B. hypoxanthus) muriquis. They are the two largest species of New World monkeys, and the northern species is one of the most endangered of all the world’s monkeys.

The Muriqui is the largest monkey in South America. Males are the same size and weight as females. It lives primarily in coffee estates in Southeastern Brazil.

They have thick, fleecy fur, which is grey or yellow-brown in color. They have long limbs and prehensile tails, so they can be particularly agile among the trees.

There is a bare patch of skin on the underside of the tip of the tail that acts as a gripping pad, helping their stability, and they have hook-like hands, with no opposable thumbs, for quick and efficient travel between trees. The Northern Muriqui has only a very short thumb, while Southern Muriquis do not have a thumb at all.

The Woolly Spider Monkey, Muriqui, or Brachyteles arachnoides eat mostly leaves and fruits, although they also eat flowers, bark and buds. Diet varies throughout the year according to what is available and leaves are probably an important food source when fruit is harder to find.

Muriquis live in the remaining patches of Atlantic coastal forest in Brazil. Once covering a vast area, the Brazilian Atlantic coastal forest has been cleared for crops, pastures and human settlement, and is now less than five per cent of its original size.

Isolated populations of the Woolly Spider Monkey or Brachyteles arachnoides survive in fragments of primary and secondary forests. The Northern and Southern species are completely separated from each other.

Woolly Spider Monkey Facts:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Family: Atelidae
Subfamily: Atelinae
Genus: Brachyteles
Spix, 1823
Type species: Brachyteles arachnoides

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