Primate

Primates; Temporal range: Palaeocene - Recent
	Olive baboon, an Old World monkey
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Grandorder:	Euarchonta
Mirorder:	Primatomorpha
Order:	Primates; Linnaeus, 1758

Primates are an order of mammals. It includes all lemurs, monkeys and apes, including humans.^[1] Most primates (but not humans) are mainly or entirely forest dwellers.

Ring-tailed lemur, a strepsirrhine primate

There are about 400 species of primates.^[2] All primates are similar to humans in many ways, but language is an important advantage which only humans have. Other primates have a pattern of calls and gestures, but not language as we know it.

Primates have hands with five fingers and flat fingernails (most other animals have claws or hooves). All primates are covered with fur (hair), but in humans the body hair is only noticeable in two places: on the head and around the genitals.

Primates are split into two groups: Strepsirrhini and Haplorhini. Haplorrhini includes larger monkeys such as, tarsiers and apes including humans. Strepsirrhini includes smaller monkeys such as lemurs, lorises, galagos (also called bush babies) and the aye-aye.

Primates are one of the few mammal groups which re-evolved full colour vision. Even so, colour vision in birds is better. Colour vision was lost in mammals during the long period when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, and mammals were mainly small nocturnal animals.^[3]

Close contact between humans and non-human primates creates opportunities for zoonotic diseases to get to humans. Virus diseases transmitted to humans include herpes, measles, ebola, rabies, and hepatitis.

Classification

Order Primates
- Suborder Strepsirrhini
  - Lemurs
  - Lorises
- Suborder Haplorhini
  - Tarsiers
  - Platyrrhini: New World monkeys
  - Catarrhini:
    - Old World monkeys
    - Apes and humans

Clade

Euarchontoglires

Glires

	Rodentia

	Lagomorpha

Euarchonta

Scandentia

Primatomorpha

Dermoptera

Primates

Strepsirrhini

(lemuriformes and lorisiformes)

Haplorhini

	Tarsiiformes

	Simiiformes (platyrrhini and catarrhini)

Primate Media

Cynocephalus volans Brehm1883 (white background)
Silhouette of a woman walking
PanTroglodytesSmit (white background)
Gorila de llanura occidental. Gorilla gorilla - Blanca Martí de Ahumada (white background)
Simia satyrus - 1837 - Print - Iconographia Zoologica - Special Collections University of Amsterdam - White Background
Le gibbon (white background)
Cynocephalus doguera - 1700-1880 - Print - Iconographia Zoologica - Special Collections University of Amsterdam - (white background)
Die Säugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur, mit Beschreibungen (Plate 8) (white background)
FMIB 46849 Primates Maki Moccoe Lemur catta (white background)

References

↑ Groves C.P. 2005. Wilson D.E.; Reeder D. M. (eds). Mammal species of the world: a taxonomic and geographic reference (3rd ed). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 111–184. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. OCLC 62265494
↑ Silcox, Mary T.; Bloch, Jonathan I.; Boyer, Doug M.; Chester, Stephen G. B.; López‐Torres, Sergi 2017. The evolutionary radiation of plesiadapiforms. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews. 26 (2): 74–94. PMID 28429568
↑ Macdonald, David 2006. Primates. The Encyclopedia of Mammals. The Brown Reference Group plc. pp. 282–307. ISBN 0-681-45659-0

Related pages

Data related to Primates at Wikispecies

[1] Groves C.P. 2005. Wilson D.E.; Reeder D. M. (eds). Mammal species of the world: a taxonomic and geographic reference (3rd ed). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 111–184. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. OCLC 62265494

[2] Silcox, Mary T.; Bloch, Jonathan I.; Boyer, Doug M.; Chester, Stephen G. B.; López‐Torres, Sergi 2017. The evolutionary radiation of plesiadapiforms. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews. 26 (2): 74–94. PMID 28429568

[3] Macdonald, David 2006. Primates. The Encyclopedia of Mammals. The Brown Reference Group plc. pp. 282–307. ISBN 0-681-45659-0

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