and was based solely on morphological characteristics, such as pelage color and
hair length, as well as cranial measurements. The authors divided spider monkeys into four allopatric species: (1) Ateles geoffroyi,(with nine subspecies, confined to Mesoamerica); (2) Ateles fusciceps(with two subspecies, distributed along the Pacific coast of northwestern South America); (3) Ateles belzebuth (with three subspecies,distributed throughout the Amazon Basin and northern Colombia), and (4) Ateles paniscus (with two subspecies, one found north of the Amazon River in the Guianas and one located south of the Amazon River in the central and southwestern Brazilian Amazon as well as Bolivia and Peru) (Kellogg and Goldman, 1944). Later
morphology-based taxonomies offered a somewhat different view of spider monkey taxonomic diversity. For example, Hernandez-Camacho and Cooper (1976) argued that all spider monkeys should be classified in a single, highly variable species, Ateles paniscus.