Lost World Reborn: Carnopithecus paranthropus

Carnopithecus paranthropus, is a cousin to the De Loy's Ape and is the largest New World monkey on Earth. It weighs about 80 pounds, can stand 4 feet tall and, like the De Loy's Ape, has no tail, being descended from the branch of new world monkeys that the uakaris evolved from. However, unlike the uakari or De Loy's Ape, Carnopithecus, as its name suggests, eat meat as well as the occasional fruit and leaves. Indeed it is not only a carnivore but a fierce predator of the Lost World's jungles. It is very powerful and has strong jaws, long canines and unusually long claws for a monkey. It feeds on all manner of animals including, small birds, lizards and monkey lizards, small mammals, and even small or young dinosaurs. There are even some reports of these monkeys killing and eating people. Carnopithecus live in medium-sized family troops and often cooperate to take on larger prey or chase other animals from their kills so that they can scavemge. Males, as in most primates, are larger and stronger than females, having bright red, fur-less faces, likely used to make them more impressive, both to females and predators. Several names have been given to the Carnopithecus, such as the nickname of "Plateau Chimp" by some researchers  and "Demon of the Trees' by the natives. They are also sometimes called "Skunk Monkeys" after the American folk-creature and the fact that they often reek, caused by both eating rotten flesh and a musk given off by their bodies to ward off other predators. It has been suggested that these animals were mistaken for early human ancestors, or "ape men" by the researcher of the Challenger expedition in the 1910s as  the Plateau Chimps are quite intelligent and some tool use has been observed, with instances of them smashing bones with rocks to get at the marrow being recorded. These animals alsosometimes get into clashes with native hunting parties but still, the mystery of the "ape men" may still be yet to be solved as there are reports of non-natural smoke and fires occurring in regions where the natives don't live.