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For the TV show Monkey see Monkey
(television)
Cynomolgus monkey at Batu Caves, Malaysia
A monkey is a primate that isn't a prosimian (or a tarsier) or an ape. Put more technically, it is any haplorhine primate not belonging
to the family Tarsiidae, Hylobatidae, or Hominidae. This rather unsatisfactory
definition results from the fact that the animals called monkeys do not correspond to any single taxon in modern scientific classification. The name is used both for the
Old World monkeys (Cercopithecidae) and New World monkeys
(Cebidae and Atelidae). However the Old
World monkeys are part of a larger group, the catarrhines, which also includes
the apes.
Because they are not a single coherent group, monkeys do not have any important characteristics that they all share and are
not shared with other groups. They range in size from the Pygmy
Marmoset, at 10 cm (4 inch) long (plus tail) and 120 g (4 oz) in weight to the male Mandrill, almost 1 metre (3 ft) long and weighing 35 Kg (75 lb). Some are arboreal (living in trees), some live on
the savannah; some eat fruit, some eat leaves, and some eat insects; although most
have tails (sometimes prehensile), others do not; some have trichromatic
colour vision like that of humans, others are dichromats or monochromats. Although all, like the
apes, have forward facing eyes, the faces of Old World and New World monkeys look very different. To understand the monkeys,
therefore, it is necessary to study the characteristics of the different groups individually.
Classification
- ORDER PRIMATES
- Suborder Strepsirhini: non-tarsier prosimians
- Suborder Haplorhini: tarsiers, monkeys and apes
- Family Tarsiidae: tarsiers
- Superfamily Platyrrhini: New World monkeys
- Family Cebidae: marmosets, tamarins, capuchins and squirrel
monkeys
- Family Nyctipithecidae: night monkeys, owl
monkeys, douroucoulis
- Family Pitheciidae: titis, sakis and uakaris
- Family Atelidae: howler, spider and woolly monkeys
- Superfamily Catarrhini
- Family Cercopithecidae: Old World monkeys
- Family Hylobatidae: gibbons
- Family Hominidae: great apes and humans
Zodiac
The Monkey is the ninth in the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese
calendar. See: Monkey (zodiac).
See also
External Link
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