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Zimices — Megacebus
Published: 2012-01-03 08:59:48 +0000 UTC; Views: 3349; Favourites: 49; Downloads: 33
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This is just a sketch for the Allocene Project:[link]The idea is that any kind of Platyrhine could to survive in future South America (probably the Cebidae monkeys) and some of the future descendants, the "Megacebus" could assume the niche of ancient ground sloths in the margins of the forest of the continent.
I suppose that is very similar to the "slothmen" of the Dougal Dixon's "Man after Man" (see here:[link] )
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Comments: 39
Looking at this...I wonder if...the sasquatch and the number of North American apelike cryptids can be interpreted as...gigantic apelike Platyrrhine monkeys! But as an honest doubt, could something like a Platyrrhine evolve bipedalism independently, given the conditions? I know that "Bigfoot" was a hoax (or something of the sort) but...considering the big IF and that there are furry bipedal giants in native American myth...I thought folk memory of ground sloths as well, but...
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Bipedal platyrrhines? hmmm, I think that is a bit difficult, considering that in these monkeys the tail is used as part of its locomotion that involves all the members. That's why I considered more likely that the model of ground sloths could be better for these megacebids. But now we have other possible models of bipedalism in mammals - leptictids and sthenurines - and having in mind this "big if" as you say, the idea of a bipedal platyrrhine could be possible, but would be very different to the traditional description of "bigfoot". Actually will be like the strange monkeys of Dougal Dixon's "After Man".
The idea of folk memories of the natives of North America that comes from the megafauna is interesting as well as origin of these monsters, but since that I on't know much about the myth of bigfoot, I wonder since when these kind of stories are present between the people...
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Well, there's a race of furry giants called si-te-ca, I've heard of, they turn to stone when they're asleep as far as I remember...there's T'sul Kalu, the Cherokee trickster who is a furry, six-fingered giant. Now the six fingers is a little bit off but it's the "big and furry" part that just gets me thinking
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Assuming that the "six fingers" could be an exageration for the long hands and claws, could be really a deformed memory of a giant sloth...
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And the slanted eyes could be a reference to...possible patterning? Some of these mammal-related mythical creatures can actually be interpreted but at other times...
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Of course, if these myths are based in real, biological information is clear that the time and the purposes of the myths (educative and idiosyncrasy) have deformed heavily the possible info.
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Hm, in Waling with Beasts the ground sloth Megatherium was depicted as an omnivore, did you imagine these as omnivores as well?
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The problem with these idea is that all the analysis about remains of isotopes in the ground sloths points to an herbivore diet... I guess that these herbivores sometimes could consume carrion and minerals like deers.
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Or living beings like the deer on that one island, who catch birds and than "extract" the bones.
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Oops! I forget that you have a comment in Megacebus.
yes, it's probably some consumption of bones, but if I remember well deers consumes bones for the limited amount of minerals in certain islands. I wondered if a giant monkey in a tropical forest would need the same thing, or with the same frequency.
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Depends on the plant matter at hand I guess. Currently I know of no primate in similar conditions (e.g. Gorillas) who do that, of course if there diet is as limited as that of e.g. Giant Pandas, perhaps they would from time to time consumer meat.
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Well, probbaly a large primate like this could consume fruits and nuts, then only needs some minerals, that could get from the soil of the forest (modern forest animals like monkeys and parrots consume clay for their digestion, for example). Then is more probably that only needs an aditional amount of calcium of bones...
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Well, if Wikipedia is right, is a latinized version of Greek kebos, or long-tailed monkey (see here:[link] )
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Thanks. At the moment I'm compiling a Latin dictionary to help me with my animal naming.
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So... have you seen this yet [link] ? @_@
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Yes, if you see their speculative works -specially Man after man- you will note that he have interesting ideas, but his art is... sometimes very odd
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The oddities are what strike me first....
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Yes, they do look somewhat like Dixon's creatures, but are still very, very impressive.
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Thanks very much! By the way, another influence of these image is Charles Knight's Megatherium:[link]
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Impresionante!! 
Llegamos a la conclusión de que el género Cebus era el más apropiado para ello. Y por lo visto, fue una buena idea
Probablemente, algunos de los parientes del Megacebus ocuparán el nicho de los gorilas y los chimpancés.
¡Gracias por tu esfuerzo!
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Me alegra que el concepto les guste y sea funcional, me imaginé que Cebus era el más apropiado al ser de los géneros actuales de platirrinos más adaptables y extendidos, y mi idea era más o menos hacer un equivalente de lo que fueron Gigantopithecus y los perezosos terrestres en el PLeistoceno... ya veremos si hacemos nuevas especies que ocupen esos nichos que dices.
Por cierto, estoy abierto a sugerencias sobre el nombre común de mis criaturas
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Giant Ground Sloth-like primates? NICE
I did had an idea of ground sloth-porcupines.
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Thanks very much for you comment!
By the way, your porcupines are from South America or Africa?
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You're welcome
North America, I got the idea from the N.A. porcupine. It's called Porcutherium, if you wanna look.
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Interesting, but you could called too "Porcuzilla"
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Haha, didn't cross my mind and I actually made it when I was in Junior High. Here you go [link]
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