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Simiiformes

(Infraorder)

Overview

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Taxonomy

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The Infraorder Simiiformes is a member of the Suborder Haplorrhini. Here is the complete "parentage" of Simiiformes:

The Infraorder Simiiformes is further organized into finer groupings including:

Families

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Aotidae

The night monkeys, also known as the owl monkeys or douroucoulis, are the members of the genus Aotus of New World monkeys (monotypic in family Aotidae). They are widely distributed in the forests of Central and South America, from Panama south to Paraguay and northern Argentina. The species that live at higher elevations tend to have thicker fur than the monkeys at sea level. The genus name means "earless"; they have ears, of course, but the external ears are tiny and hard to see. Night monkeys have big brown eyes and therefore have increased ability to be active at night. They are called night monkeys because all species are active at night and are in fact the only truly nocturnal monkeys (an exception is the subspecies , which is cathemeral). Both male and female night monkeys weigh almost the same amount. For example, in one of these Night Monkeys, A. azarae, the male weighs 2.76 pounds while the female weighs 2.75 pounds. [more]

Atelidae

Atelidae is one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised. It was formerly included in the family Cebidae. Atelids are generally larger monkeys; the family includes the howler, spider, woolly and woolly spider monkeys (the latter being the largest of the New World monkeys). They are found throughout the forested regions of Central and South America, from Mexico to northern Argentina. [more]

Cebidae

The Cebidae is one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised. It includes the capuchin monkeys and squirrel monkeys. These species are found throughout tropical and subtropical South and Central America. [more]

Cercopithecidae

The Old World monkeys or Cercopithecidae are a group of primates, falling in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea in the clade (or parvorder) of Catarrhini. The Old World monkeys are native to Africa and Asia today, inhabiting a range of environments from tropical rain forest to savanna, shrubland and mountainous terrain, and are also known from Europe in the fossil record. However, a (possibly introduced) free-roaming group of monkeys still survives in Gibraltar (Europe) to this day. Old World monkeys include many of the most familiar species of nonhuman primates, such as baboons and macaques. [more]

Eosimiidae

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Hominidae

The Hominidae (; anglicized hominids, also known as great apes), as the term is used here, form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees (Pan), gorillas (Gorilla), humans (Homo), and orangutans (Pongo). The term "hominid" is also used in the more restricted sense of humans and relatives of humans closer than chimpanzees. In this usage, all hominid species other than Homo sapiens are extinct. [more]

Hylobatidae

Gibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family is divided into four genera based on their diploid chromosome number: Hylobates (44), Hoolock (38), Nomascus (52), and Symphalangus (50). The extinct Bunopithecus sericus is a gibbon or gibbon-like ape which, until recently, was thought to be closely related to the hoolock gibbons. Gibbons occur in tropical and subtropical rainforests from northeast India to Indonesia and north to southern China, including the islands of Sumatra, Borneo and Java. [more]

Parapithecidae

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Pitheciidae

The Pitheciidae are one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised. Formerly they were included in the family Atelidae. The family includes the titis, saki monkeys and uakaris. Most species are native to the Amazonia region of Brazil, with some being found from Colombia in the north to Bolivia in the south. [more]

Pliopithecidae

[more]

Proconsulidae

[more]

More info about the Family Proconsulidae may be found here.

Sources

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Last Revised: August 24, 2012
2012/08/24 17:28:00