Colobus
The genus Colobus comprises the black-and-white colobus monkeys. It is a genus of Old World monkey native to Africa. The genus is closely related to the red colobus monkeys of genus Piliocolobus. There are six species assigned to this genus, and at least eight subspecies. They are generally found in high-density forests where they forage on leaves, flowers and fruit. Social groups of colobus are diverse, varying from group to group. Resident-egalitarian and allomothering relationships have been observed among the female population. Complex behaviours have also been observed in this species, including greeting rituals and varying group sleeping patterns. Colobi play a significant role in seed dispersal.
Duncan Wright ( User:Sabine's Sunbird ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- ColobinaePBDB
- Diet
- frugivore, folivorePBDB, for Cercopithecidae
- Life habit
- arborealPBDB, for Cercopithecidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 4.5 million years on record.
The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka.
11 occurrences of Colobus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
11 occurrences- Miocene9%
- Pliocene5%
- Pleistocene85%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
3 formations
- Koobi Fora Formation · Omo Group5
- Wehaietu Formation · Awash Group3
- Kapthurin Formation2
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The named rock units Colobus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Colobus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Colobus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
137 taxa- Crocodylus8 sites
- Theropithecus oswaldi8 sites
- Clarias6 sites
- Thryonomys6 sites
- Hystrix5 sites
- Mammalia5 sites
- Tragelaphus scriptus5 sites
- Alcelaphini4 sites
- Bovidae4 sites
- Crocodylus niloticus4 sites
- Equus4 sites
- Euthecodon brumpti4 sites
- Geochelone4 sites
- Polypterus4 sites
- Redunca4 sites
- Trionyx4 sites
- Cercocebus3 sites
- Chlorocebus aethiops3 sites
- Cricetidae3 sites
- Crocuta crocuta3 sites
- Gazella3 sites
- Kobus ellipsiprymnus3 sites
- Lates3 sites
- Phacochoerus aethiopicus3 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Colobus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
11 references- The bone assemblages from the excavated sites1
- Fossil elephantoids, Awash paleolake basins, and the Afar triple junction, Ethiopia1
- Stratigraphic Context of Fossil hominids from the Omo Group Deposits: Northern Turkana Basin, Kenya and Ethiopia1
- Geology and fauna of the middle Miocene hominoid site at Muruyur,Baringo District,Kenya1
- Evolution and sedimentary character of lake deltas fed by ephemeral rivers in the Turkana Basin, southern Kenya1
- Révision de la fuane de mammifères du Miocène supérieur de Menacer (ex-Marceau), Algérie: Discussion sur l'âge du gisement1
- Koobi Fora Research Project The Fossil Ungulates: Proboscidea, Perissodactyla, Suidae1
- Paleoecology of Late Cenozoic Fishes from the Turkana Basin, Northern Kenya1
- Fossil Mammals and Artifacts from the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia1
- Geology and stratigraphy of Neogene deposits, Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia1
- Extinct large Colobines from the Plio-Pleistocene of Africa1
Each of the 11 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content3
Picture of Colobus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Duncan Wright ( User:Sabine's Sunbird )
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Structured light scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- AMNH Mammal Collections
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Colobus guereza · AMNH:Mammals:M-52241
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- upeshnepal1
- Licence
- CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
- Commercial use
- the licence does not allow it
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Colobus”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itColobinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Illiger 1811