They have long prehensile tails with a sensitive, almost hairless, tactile pad on the underside of the distal part.

They have the dental formula: 2.1.3.32.1.3.3 Females give birth to a single infant (or, rarely, twins) after a gestation period of 180 to 225 days.

[2] Atelid monkeys are typically polygamous, and live in social groups with anything up to twenty five adults, depending on species.

[1] In addition, a number of extinct species from the fossil record have been identified as being within or closely related to this family.

[3] Family Atelidae Silvestro etal 2017 showed the relationship among the extinct and extant atelid genera:[3] Mohanamico Chilecebus Solimoea Caipora Lagothrix Brachyteles Ateles Stirtonia Paralouatta Cartelles Alouatta