Capuchin monkey
| Capuchin Temporal range: 6.2–0 Ma Late Miocene – Recent |
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| White-headed capuchin (Cebus capucinus) on a tree near a river bank in the jungles of Guanacaste, Costa Rica. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Family: | Cebidae |
| Subfamily: |
Cebinae Bonaparte, 1831 |
| Genus | |
The capuchin monkeys (/ˈkæpjʊtʃɪn/ or /ˈkæpjʊʃɪn/) are New World monkeys of the subfamily Cebinae. They are readily identified as the "organ-grinder" monkey, and have been used in several movies and television shows. The range of capuchin monkeys includes Central America and South America as far south as northern Argentina. In Central America, they usually occupy the wet lowland forests on Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Panama and deciduous dry forest on the Pacific coast.
The word capuchin derives from a group of friars named the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, an offshoot from the Franciscans, who wear brown robes with large hoods. When explorers reached the Americas in the 15th century they found small monkeys whose coloring resembled these friars, especially when in their robes with hoods down, and named them capuchins. When the scientists described a specimen (thought to be a golden-bellied capuchin) they noted that: "his muzzle of a tanned color,... with the lighter color around his eyes that melts into the white at the front, his cheeks..., give him the looks that involuntarily reminds us of the appearance that historically in our country represents ignorance, laziness, and sensuality." The scientific name of the genus, Cebus comes from the Greek word kêbos, meaning a long-tailed monkey.
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