Living major primates

Overview of Living Primates

PROSIMIANS
Lemurs
Geographical Location:
● Lemurs are
found on the island of
Madagascar and other
islands off the coast of
Africa, they became
extinct elsewhere in the world.
Characteristics:
● Larger lemurs are diurnal and eat vegetable
foods: fruit, leaves, buds, and bark.
● Smaller lemurs are nocturnal insectivorous
(insect -feeding)

Lorises
Geographical Location:
● Lorises are found in tropical forests and woodlands of Asia, and
Africa,india, Sri Lanka, southeast
Characteristics:
● Lorises use a climbing form of quadrupedalism.
● Some lorises are insectivorous; others supplement their diet with
fruit, leaves, gums, and
slugs.

● Females frequently form

associations for foraging or in
sharing the same sleeping nest

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 Tarsiers
Geographical Location:
● Tarsiers are primates found on the islands of southeast Asia.
Characteristics:
● Tarsiers are small nocturnal.
● Tarsiers eat insects and small vertebrates which they catch by
leaping from branches.
● The basic social pattern appears to be a family unit consisting of a
mated pair and their offspring.

ANTHROPOIDS
Monkey
● Monkeys represent about
70% of all primates
● Monkeys are divided into two
large groups separated by
geographic area as well as
several million years of
evolutionary history:
● New world monkeys
(Platyrrhini)
● Old world monkeys
(Catarrhini)

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 New World Monkeys
Geographical
Location:
● Almost
exclusively
arboreal and
found in southern
Mexico and
central and south
America.
Characteristics:
● Callitrichidae give
birth to twins,
have claws, live in
families composed
of a mated pair or
a female and two
adult males, plus the offspring.
● Males are involved with infant care.
● Some of the Cebidae family possess prehensile, and most live in groups of both sexes and
ages, or as monogamous pairs with subadults.

Old World Monkeys

Geographical Location:
● Habitats range from tropical forests to
semiarid desert to snow-covered areas in
Japan and China.
Characteristics:
● Most old world monkeys are quadrupedal
and arboreal; others have adapted to life on
the ground.
● All old world monkeys belong to one family,
the Cercopithecidae, which is divided into
subfamilies,
● The Cercopithecines (terrestrial and
omnivorous) and the Colobines (arboreal and
vegetarian).

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Hylobatidae
Gibbons and Siamangs
Geographical Location:
● Found in tropical southeast Asia.

Characteristics:
● Locomotor adaptations for
brachiation may be related to feeding
behaviour while hanging from branches.
● Diet is largely fruit with
supplements of leaves, flowers, and insects.
● Basic social unit is a monogamous
pair and their dependent offspring.
● Males and females are territorial and
delineate their territories with whoops and
"songs".

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 Pongidae

Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)

Geographical Location:
● Found in heavily forested areas of Borneo and Sumatra.
Characteristics:
● Slow, cautious climbers and almost completely arboreal.
● Large animals (males = 200 pounds, females = 100 pounds)
with pronounced sexual dimorphism.
● Solitary
● Principally frugivorous (feed-eating).

Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla)

Geographical Location:
● The largest of the living primates
confined to forested regions of
central Africa..
Characteristics:
● Exhibit marked sexual
dimorphism;
● Males can weigh up to 400
pounds, females 200 pounds.
● Primarily terrestrial, employing a
semi-quadrupedal
knuckle-walking. posture called
● Live in groups that consist of one large silverback male, a few adult females, and their sub
adult offspring.

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Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
Geographical Location:
● Found in equatorial Africa.
Characteristics:
● Anatomically similar to gorillas particularly in
limb proportions and upper-body shape.
● Locomotion includes knuckle-walking on the
ground and brachiation in the trees.
● Eat a variety of plant and animal foods.
● Large communities of as many as 50 individuals.

Bonobos (Pan paniscus)

Geographical Location:
● Only found in an area south of the Zaire river.
Characteristics:
● Their population is believed to only number a
few thousand individuals.
● Exploit many of the same foods as chimps,
including occasional small mammals.
● Male-female bonds constitute the societal
core.
● Bonobo sexuality includes frequent
copulations and occurs throughout the female's estrous cycle.

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Hominidae
Humans (Homo sapiens)-The only living species in the family Hominidae.

Geographical Location:
● All across the habitable zone of the globe.
Characteristics:
● Human teeth are typical primate teeth.
● Dependence on vision for orientation to the world, Flexible limbs and grasping hands
● Omnivorous diet
● Cognitive abilities are the result of dramatic increases in brain size
● Bipedal

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