brown weeper capuchin

About the brown weeper capuchin

The brown weeper capuchin (Cebus brunneus) or Venezuelan brown capuchin is a species of gracile capuchin monkey endemic to Venezuela, although some sources also consider it to occur on Trinidad. This taxon had previously been considered to be both Cebus albifrons trinitanus and C. olivaceus, and in 1981 had been interpreted doubtfully distinct and likely conspecific with C. capucinus by some taxonomists. Boubli, Mittermeier and Rylands considered the taxon to be called C. olivaceus ssp. brunneus when they wrote the IUCN Red List assessment in 2008, classifying the subspecies within the Guianan weeper capuchin.

In 2012, Boubli et al., found divergences in mitochondrial DNA of C. brunneus to be significant enough to recognise it as a separate species, and also synonymized the Trinidad white-fronted capuchin (C. trinitatis) with it based on the mitochondrial genes of the single sampled specimen. However, subsequent morphological inspection of the C. brunneus specimens used for the study found them to be distinct from the actual type specimen of C. brunneus. Although the American Society of Mammalogists still recognizes the Trinidad capuchins as conspecific with C. brunneus... Wikipedia →