Atelids

Some New World monkeys use a suspensory form of locomotion called arm-swinging that resembles brachiation. Unlike brachiation in the tail-less gibbons and siamangs, the prehensile tail of NWMs contacts the suprastrate during arm-swinging. My current work examines the influence of tail grasping on the path of the center of mass during arm-swinging in Ateles (spider monkeys) and Lagothrix (woolly monkeys).