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Tamarins of the genus Saguinus, subfamily Callitrichinae, represent one of the most diverse primate radiations. So far, about 35 taxa have been described, but detailed information about their taxonomy and phylogeny is still lacking. To further elucidate the phylogenetic relationships and the biogeographic history within the genus, and to contribute to a more reliable classification of its taxa, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and the hypervariable region I of the D-loop. Therefore, we mainly used fecal samples from wild tamarins collected during two expeditions to the Peruvian Amazon, an area of high tamarin diversity. Our data suggest that the numerous taxa of the S. nigricollis species group are derived from a common ancestor that separated from the other representatives of the genus ∼10 mya. Most taxa of the S. nigricollis group form monophyletic clusters, which mainly originated in a single rapid radiation ∼2.9 mya. S. fuscicollis and S. nigricollis appear as polyphyletic taxa, but we could identify various clusters, which are mainly consistent with differences in coat coloration. We could confirm most of the existing taxa as distinct entities and suggest species status for fuscicollis, illigeri, lagonotus, leucogenys, nigricollis, nigrifrons, tripartitus, and weddelli. Our genetic data do not support a separate status for melanoleucus and graellsi, but due to differences in fur coloration, we give them subspecies status. The species group most likely originated in western Amazonia and diversified during the decline of the Acre wetland and the formation of the Amazonian river system. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2011. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A detailed understanding of the range of the golden-mantle tamarin, Saguinus tripartitus (Milne Edwards, 1878), in Amazonian Peru and Ecuador is of particular relevance, not only because it is poorly known but also because it was on the basis of its supposed sympatry with the saddleback tamarin (S. fuscicollis lagonotus) that Thorington (Am J Primatol 15:367-371, 1988) argued that it is a distinct species rather than a saddleback tamarin subspecies, as was believed by Hershkovitz (Living new world monkeys, vol I. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1977). A number of surveys have been carried out since 1988 in the supposed range of S. tripartitus, in both Ecuador and Peru. Here we summarize and discuss these issues and provide a new suggestion for the geographic range of this species; that is, between the ríos Napo and Curaray in Peru and extending east into Ecuador. We also review current evidence for the distributions of Spix's black-mantle tamarin (S. nigricollis nigricollis), Graells' black-mantle tamarin (S. n. graellsi), and the saddleback tamarin (S. fuscicollis lagonotus), which are also poorly known, and examine the evidence regarding sympatry between them. We conclude that despite the existence of a number of specimens with collecting localities that indicate overlap in their geographic ranges, the fact that the four tamarins are [corrected] of similar size and undoubtedly very similar in their feeding habits militates strongly against the occurrence of sympatry among them.