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It occurs throughout the lowlands of the Lower
and Upper Amazons, but does not range to the south beyond the
limits of the river plains. At that point an allied species, the
White-whiskered Coaita (Ateles marginatus) takes its place. The
Coaitas are called by zoologists spider monkeys, on account of
the length and slenderness of their body and limbs. In these apes
the tail, as a prehensile organ, reaches its highest degree of
perfection; and on this account it would, perhaps, be correct to
consider the Coaitas as the extreme development of the American
type of apes. As far as we know, from living and fossil species,
the New World has progressed no farther than the Coaita towards
the production of a higher form of the Quadrumanous order. The
tendency of Nature here has been, to all appearance, simply to
perfect those organs which adapt the species more and more
completely to a purely arboreal life; and no nearer approach has
been made towards the more advanced forms of anthropoid apes,
which are the products of the Old World solely.


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