Prosimians vs Anthropoids The order Primates is divided into two suborders Prosimians and Anthropoids The characteristics of primates are typified by the Anthropoids the suborder to which we belong The prosimians are more primitive and don t have all the characteristics we associate with primates Prosimians These are the most primitive primates primitive developed earliest Do not possess all the characteristics we listed for primates Includes Lemur Loris Potto Tarsier Mongoose lemur Turnbaugh et al 1993 199 Prosimians Usually dog sized or smaller Most are nocturnal active at night have a protruding snout naked moist nose like a dog s nose have grooming claws have no color vision bear 2 3 young at birth have a long tail have prehensile hands feet but not fully opposable thumbs Examples of prosimians 6 families and 28 genera of prosimians Note the muzzles wet naked nose Turnbaugh et al 1993 167 O K we ll talk about Anthropoids those primates with the characteristics I listed as typical of primates The Suborder Anthropoidea contains two Infraorders Platyrrhini platyrrhines flat nose widely spaced nostrils New World monkeys 52 species More teeth than us Almost all arboreal Some have prehensile tails Humboldt s woolly monkey http www theprimata com lagothrix lagotricha html Catarrhini catarrhines Old World monkeys apes and humans sharp nose closely spaced nostrils point down Since this is the Infraorder we are in we ll look at it in more detail Guenon Turnbaugh et al 1993 171 The Catarrhines are divided into two Superfamilies Cercopithecoidea Cercopithecoids or Old World monkeys Monkeys of Europe Asia and Africa Both terrestrial larger more sexual dimorphism and arboreal smaller less sexual dimorphism 2 subfamilies about 12 genera and 78 species Examples baboon macaque guenons Hominoidea a superfamily Also known as hominoids Includes the Lesser apes Great apes Humans Gibbons Siamangs Gorilla Chimpanzee Bonobo Orangutan Humans In other words hominoid refers to apes and humans hominoid includes apes and humans hominid includes past and present humans Feder Park 2001 111
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