A primate (pronounced /ˈprаɪmeɪt/, us dict: prī′·māt) is a member of the biological order The Latin suffix -formes meaning "having the form of" is used for the scientific name of orders of birds and fishes, but not for those of mammals and invertebrates Primates (/prаɪˈmeɪtiːz/ prī·mā′·tēz; Latin Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. With the Roman conquest, Latin was spread to countries around the Mediterranean, including a large part of Europe. Romance languages, such as Aragonese, Corsican, Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish, are descended from Latin, while many others,: "prime, first rank"[2]), the group that contains lemurs A lemur is a member of the biological infraorder Lemuriformes, a prosimian and strepsirrhine primate that is endemic to the island of Madagascar. The term "lemur" is derived from the Latin word lemures, meaning "spirits of the night" or "haunter". This likely refers to their large, reflective eyes and the wailing, lorisids Lorisidae is a family of strepsirrhine primates. The lorids are all slim arboreal animals and include the lorises, pottos and angwantibos. Lorids live in tropical, central Africa as well as in south and southeast Asia, galagos Galagos, also known as bushbabies, bush babies or nagapies , are small, nocturnal primates native to continental Africa, and make up the family Galagidae (also sometimes called Galagonidae). They are sometimes included as a subfamily within the Lorisidae or Loridae, tarsiers Tarsiers are haplorrhine primates of the genus Tarsius, a genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all the species living today are found in the islands of Southeast Asia, monkeys A monkey is any cercopithecoid or platyrrhine (New World monkey) primate. All primates that are not prosimians (lemurs and tarsiers) or apes are monkeys. The 264 known extant monkey species represent two of the three groupings of simian primates (the third group being the 21 species of apes). Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent and,, and apes An ape is any member of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates, including humans. Due to its ambiguous nature, the term ape has been deemphasized in favor of Hominoidea as a means of describing taxonomic relationships, with the last category including great apes The Hominidae form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees, gorillas, humans and orangutans.[3] With the exception of humans, who inhabit every continent on Earth,[a] most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa and Asia.[4] Primates range in size from the Madame Berthe's Mouse Lemur Berthe's Mouse Lemur is the smallest of the mouse lemurs and the smallest primate in the world; the average body length is 92 millimetres (3.6 in) and seasonal weight is around 30 g (1.1 oz). It is found in the Kirindy Mitea National Park in Western Madagascar, which weighs only 30 grams (1.1 oz) to the Mountain Gorilla The Mountain Gorilla is one of the two subspecies of the Eastern Gorilla. There are two populations. One is found in the Virunga volcanic mountains of Central Africa, within three national parks: Mgahinga, in south-west Uganda; Volcanoes, in north-west Rwanda; and Virunga in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The other is found in weighing 200 kilograms (440 lb). According to fossil evidence, the primitive ancestors of primates may have existed in the late Cretaceous The Cretaceous , Latin language for "chalky", usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide (chalk), is a geologic period and system from circa 145.5 ± 4 to 65.5 ± 0.3 million years ago (Ma). In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the Cenozoic era period around 65 million years ago, and the oldest known primate is the Late Paleocene The Paleocene or Palaeocene, the "early recent", is a geologic epoch that lasted from 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma to 55.8 ± 0.2 Ma . It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic era. As with most other older geologic periods, the strata that define the epoch's beginning and end are well identified but the exact date of the Plesiadapis Plesiadapis is one of the oldest known primate-like mammal species which existed about 58-55 mya in North America and Europe. It looked a little like a squirrel. Plesiadapis still had claws and its eyes were located on each side of the head, making them faster on the ground than on the top of the trees, but they begin to spend long times on lower, c. 55–58 million years ago. Molecular clock The molecular clock (based on the molecular clock hypothesis ) is a technique in molecular evolution which uses fossil constraints and rates of molecular change to deduce the time in geologic history when two species or other taxa diverged. It is used to estimate the time of occurrence of events called speciation or radiation. The molecular data studies suggest that the primate branch may be even older, originating in the mid-Cretaceous period around 85 mya.
The Primates order has traditionally been divided into two main groupings: prosimians Prosimians are suborders and families of mammals that are defined by being primates that are not monkeys or apes. They include, among others, lemurs, the Aye-aye, bushbabies, and tarsiers. They are considered to have characteristics that are more primitive than those of monkeys and apes. Prosimians are the only primates native to Madagascar, and and simians The simians are the "higher primates" familiar to most people: the Old World monkeys and apes, including humans, (together being the catarrhines), and the New World monkeys or platyrrhines. Simians tend to be larger than the "lower primates" or prosimians. Prosimians have characteristics most like those of the earliest primates, and included the lemurs A lemur is a member of the biological infraorder Lemuriformes, a prosimian and strepsirrhine primate that is endemic to the island of Madagascar. The term "lemur" is derived from the Latin word lemures, meaning "spirits of the night" or "haunter". This likely refers to their large, reflective eyes and the wailing of Madagascar Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are endemic to Madagascar.[citation needed] They include the, lorisiforms Lorisiformes are a group of primates found throughout Africa and Asia. Members of this infraorder include the galagos and the lorises. As strepsirrhines, they are related to the lemurs and tarsiers Tarsiers are haplorrhine primates of the genus Tarsius, a genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all the species living today are found in the islands of Southeast Asia. Simians included the monkeys and apes. More recently, taxonomists Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word finds its roots in the Greek τάξις, taxis and νόμος, nomos ('law' or 'science'). Taxonomy uses taxonomic units, known as taxa (singular taxon) have created the suborder Strepsirrhini The clade Strepsirrhini is one of the two suborders of primates. One of the most distinguishing characteristics of these 118 species is their wet noses, and it is this feature for which the grouping is named. The Greek name means having a curved or bent nose . Madagascar's only primates (apart from humans) are strepsirrhines, although others can, or curly-nosed primates, to include non-tarsier prosimians and the suborder Haplorrhini The haplorrhines, the "dry-nosed" primates , are members of the Haplorrhini clade: the prosimian tarsiers and all of the true simians. The simians are the catarrhines (Old World monkeys and apes, including humans) and the platyrrhines (New World monkeys), or dry-nosed primates, to include tarsiers and the simians. Simians are divided into two groups: the platyrrhines ("flat nosed") or New World monkeys New World monkeys are the five families of primates that are found in Central and South America: Callitrichidae, Cebidae, Aotidae, Pitheciidae, and Atelidae. The five families are ranked together as the Platyrrhini infraorder and the Ceboidea superfamily, which are essentially synonymous since Ceboidea is the only living platyrrhine superfamily of South and Central America and the catarrhine Catarrhini is a parvorder of the Primates, one of the three major divisions of the suborder Haplorrhini. It contains the Old World monkeys and the apes (superfamily Hominoidea) (narrow nosed) monkeys of Africa and southeastern Asia. The New World monkeys include the capuchin The capuchins (pronounced /kə'putʃən/) are the group of New World monkeys classified as genus Cebus. The range of the capuchin monkeys includes Central America and South America as far south as northern Argentina. Cebus is the only genus in subfamily Cebinae, howler Howler monkeys are among the largest of the New World monkeys. Nine species are currently recognised. Previously classified in the family Cebidae, they are now placed in the family Atelidae. These monkeys are native to South and Central American forests. They live in groups of usually about 18 individuals. Threats to howler monkeys include being and squirrel monkeys Squirrel monkeys live in the tropical forests of Central and South America in the canopy layer. Most species have para- or allopatric ranges in the Amazon, while S. oerstedii is found disjunctly in Costa Rica and Panama, and the catarrhines include the Old World monkeys The Old World monkeys or Cercopithecidae are a group of primates, falling in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea in the clade Catarrhini. The Old World monkeys are native to Africa and Asia today, inhabiting a range of environments from tropical rain forest to savanna, scrubland, and mountainous terrain, and are also known from Europe in the fossil (such as baboons Baboons are African and Asian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominid members of the primate order; only the Mandrill and the Drill are larger. Previously, the closely related Gelada and two species of Mandrill and Drill (genus and macaques The macaques constitute a genus (Macaca, /məˈkækə/) of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae) and the apes An ape is any member of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates, including humans. Due to its ambiguous nature, the term ape has been deemphasized in favor of Hominoidea as a means of describing taxonomic relationships. Humans are the only catarrhines that have spread outside of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia, although fossil evidence shows many species once existed in Europe as well.
Considered generalist A generalist species is able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and can make use of a variety of different resources . A specialist species can only thrive in a narrow range of environmental conditions or has a limited diet. Most organisms do not all fit neatly into either group, however. Some species are highly specialized, mammals, primates exhibit a wide range of characteristics. Some primates (including some great apes and baboons) do not live primarily in trees, but all species possess adaptations for climbing trees. Locomotion techniques used include leaping from tree to tree, walking on two or four limbs, knuckle-walking, and swinging between branches of trees (known as brachiation Brachiation is a form of arboreal locomotion in which primates swing from tree limb to tree limb using only their arms). Primates are characterized by their large brains, relative to other mammals, as well as an increased reliance on stereoscopic Stereopsis is the process in visual perception leading to the sensation of depth from the two slightly different projections of the world onto the retinas of the two eyes. The differences in the two retinal images are called horizontal disparity, retinal disparity, or binocular disparity. The differences arise from the eyes' different positions in vision at the expense of smell, the dominant sensory system in most mammals. These features are most significant in monkeys and apes, and noticeably less so in lorises and lemurs. Three-color vision Trichromacy or trichromaticism is the condition of possessing three independent channels for conveying color information, derived from the three different cone types. Organisms with trichromacy are called trichromats has developed in some primates. Most also have opposable thumbs The thumb is the first digit of the hand. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position , the thumb is the lateral-most digit. The Medical Latin English adjective for thumb is pollical and some have prehensile Prehensility is the quality of an appendage or organ that has adapted for grasping or holding. The word is derived from the Latin term prehendere, meaning "to grasp." tails. Many species are sexually dimorphic, which means males and females have different physical traits, including body mass, canine tooth size, and coloration. Primates have slower rates of development than other similarly sized mammals, and reach maturity later but have longer lifespans. Some species live in solitude, others live in male–female pairs, and others live in groups of up to hundreds of members.
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Two squirrel monkeys were trained to perform standard colour-blindness tests and communicate what colours they were seeing to the researchers via a computer ...
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Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:38:16 GM
Less than a week after his appointment as new . primate. of the Catholic Church in Belgium, Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard has become the focal point of a national controversy about homosexuality. The Archbishop-elect of Brussels a ...
Q. Does anybody have any good websites or pages to do with this? Thanks
Asked by Lisa28 - Sun Mar 9 19:46:08 2008 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Quite a bit. Some mistakes were made on differentiating species because of great sexual dimorphism. This subject is an easy google.
Answered by jonmcn49 - Sun Mar 9 21:43:13 2008
