Brown weeper capuchin
The brown weeper capuchin or Venezuelan brown capuchin is a species of gracile capuchin monkey endemic to Venezuela, although some sources also consider it to occur on Trinidad.
Taxonomy
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 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, the ITIS recognizes them as a subspecies of Humboldt's white-fronted capuchin.
Description
The brown weeper capuchin has brown, thick fur with a dark wedge on the forehead and lighter face, cheeks and chin. Its head and body are about with a tail.The different species known as white-fronted capuchins are extremely difficult to tell apart, and also appear to intergrade with each other where different taxa meet, as well as other Cebus taxa recognised as distinct. C. brunneus may be conspecific with white-faced capuchins, which often cannot reliably be distinguished from it physically.