Simian

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Simian[1][2]
Fossil range: Middle Eocene – Recent
Lar Gibbon
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorrhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Haeckel, 1866
Families

Callitrichidae
Cebidae
Aotidae
Pitheciidae
Atelidae
Cercopithecidae
Hylobatidae
Hominidae

The simians (infraorder Simiiformes) 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.

Classification and evolution

The simians are split into three groups. The New World monkeys in Platyrrhini parvorder split from the simian line about 40 million years ago (mya), leaving the Catarrhini parvorder occupying the Old World. This group split about 25 mya between the Old World monkeys and the apes. "Monkeys" are a paraphyletic group (i.e. not a single coherent group). Earlier classifications split the primates into two large groups: the "Prosimii" (strepsirrhines and tarsiers) and the simians in "Anthropoidea" /an'thro-poy'de-a/ (Gr. anthropos, human).

The following is the listing of the various simian families, and their placement in the Order Primates:[1][2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Groves, C. (2005). "INFRAORDER SIMIIFORMES". in Wilson, D. E., & Reeder, D. M, eds. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 128-184. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=12100177. 
  2. ^ a b Rylands AB and Mittermeier RA (2009). "The Diversity of the New World Primates (Platyrrhini)". in Garber PA, Estrada A, Bicca-Marques JC, Heymann EW, Strier KB. South American Primates: Comparative Perspectives in the Study of Bahavior, Ecology, and Conservation. Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-78704-6. 
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