Monkey

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Cebidae Aotidae Pitheciidae Atelidae Cercopithecidae

A monkey is any cercopithecoid (Old World monkey) 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 usually smaller and/or longer-tailed than apes.

The New World monkeys are classified within the parvorder Platyrrhini, whereas the Old World monkeys (superfamily Cercopithecoidea) form part of the parvorder Catarrhini, which also includes the apes. Thus, scientifically speaking, monkeys are paraphyletic (not a single coherent group), and Old World monkeys are actually more closely related to the apes than they are to the New World monkeys.

Due to its size (up to 1 m/3 ft) the Mandrill is often thought to be an ape, but it is actually an Old World monkey. Also, a few monkey species have the word "ape" in their common name.

For more information about Monkey, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with monkeys

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Why Some Monkeys Don't Get AIDS

Why Some Monkeys Don't Get AIDS

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two studies published this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation provide a significant advance in understanding how some species of monkeys such as sooty mangabeys and African green ...


Plan to breed lab monkeys splits Puerto Rican town (AP)

Plan to breed lab monkeys splits Puerto Rican town

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- Puerto Rico has such a bad history with research monkeys running amok that some residents are stunned that its government has tentatively approved a plan to import and breed thousands of primates ...


Opposites attract: Monkeys choose mating partners with different genes

Biology / Evolution

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

The world's largest species of monkey 'chooses' mates with genes that are different from their own to guarantee healthy and strong offspring, according to a new research study.


New chameleon species discovered in East Africa

New chameleon species discovered in East Africa (w/ Podcast)

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 23, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

A new species of chameleon has been discovered in Tanzania by a team of scientists.


Africa's rarest monkey had an intriguing sexual past, DNA study confirms

Africa's rarest monkey had an intriguing sexual past, DNA study confirms

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 11, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0

The most extensive DNA study to-date of Africa's rarest monkey reveals that the species had an intriguing sexual past. Of the last two remaining populations of the recently discovered kipunji, one population ...


Hormone that affects finger length key to social behavior

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 04, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (9) | comments 2

The hormones, called androgens, are important in the development of masculine characteristics such as aggression and strength. It is also thought that prenatal androgens affect finger length during development in the womb. ...


Precuneus region of human and monkey brain is divided into 4 distinct regions

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

A study published this week in PNAS provides a comprehensive comparative functional anatomy study in human and monkey brains which reveals highly similar brain networks preserved across evolution.


Cocaine exposure during pregnancy leads to impulsivity in male, not female, monkeys

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Oct 22, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Adult male monkeys exposed to cocaine while in the womb have poor impulse control and may be more vulnerable to drug abuse than female monkeys, even a decade or more after the exposure, according to a new study by researchers ...


Ancient Lemurs Take Bite Out of Evolutionary Tree

Ancient Lemurs Take Bite Out of Evolutionary Tree (w/ Video)

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Oct 21, 2009 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- About 40 miles outside Cairo, Egypt, National Science Foundation-supported paleontologists from three American universities are revealing features of a newly discovered African primate and ...


Rhesus macaque

Rhesus macaque moms 'go gaga' for baby, too

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 08, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

The intense exchanges that human mothers share with their newborn infants may have some pretty deep roots, suggests a study of rhesus macaques reported online on October 8th in Current Biology.


Researcher studies monkeys in Africa to better understand virus evolution

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created Oct 07, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Despite the importance of AIDS in human health, scientists still know very little about the diversity and ecology of AIDS-like viruses in nature.


Monkeys' grooming habits provide clues to how we socialise

Monkeys' grooming habits provide clues to how we socialise

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 30, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A study of female monkeys' grooming habits provides new clues about the way humans socialise. New research reveals a link between the size of the neocortex in the brain, responsible for higher-level ...


Evidence points to conscious 'metacognition' in some nonhuman animals

Evidence Points to Conscious 'Metacognition' in Some Nonhuman Animals

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 14, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (36) | comments 16

(PhysOrg.com) -- J. David Smith, Ph.D., a comparative psychologist at the University at Buffalo who has conducted extensive studies in animal cognition, says there is growing evidence that animals share functional ...


Oil and wildlife don't mix in Ecuador's Eden

Oil and wildlife don't mix in Ecuador's Eden

Biology / Ecology

created Sep 10, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

What harm can a simple road do in a pristine place such as Ecuador's Yasuni National Park, home to peccaries, tapirs, monkeys and myriad other wildlife species? A great deal, it turns out. Specifically, it ...


Monkey brains signal the desire to explore

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Sep 04, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 7

Sticking with what you know often comes at the price of learning about more favorable alternatives.