Catarrhini is a parvorder of the Primates, one of the three major divisions of the suborder
HaplorrhiniThe haplorrhines, the "dry-nosed" primates , are members of the Haplorrhini clade: the prosimian tarsiers and all of the true simians...
. It contains the
Old World monkeyThe Old World monkeys or Cercopithecidae are a group of primates, falling in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea in the clade Catarrhini. The Old World monkeys are native to Africa and Asia today, inhabiting a range of environments from tropical rain forest to savanna, scrubland, and mountainous...
s (
superfamilyIn biological classification, rank is the level in a taxonomic hierarchy. The most basic rank is that of species, the next most important is genus, and then family...
Cercopithecoidea,
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus...
Cercopithecidae) and the
apeAn ape is any member of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates. Due to its ambiguous nature, the term ape is less suitable as a means of describing taxonomic relationships....
s (superfamily Hominoidea).
The latter is further divided into the lesser apes (family Hylobatidae), consisting of the
gibbonGibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae . The family is divided into four genera based on their diploid chromosome number: Hylobates , Hoolock , Nomascus , and Symphalangus . The extinct Bunopithecus sericus is a gibbon or gibbon-like ape which, until recently, was thought to be closely related...
s; and the
hominidsThe Hominidae The Hominidae The Hominidae (anglicized Hominids, also known as great apes
["Great ape" is a common name rather than a taxonomic label and there are differences in usage...]
or great apes (family Hominidae), consisting of the
orangutanThe orangutans are two endangered species of great apes. Known for their intelligence, they live in trees and are the largest living arboreal animal. They have longer arms than other great apes, and their hair is typically reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of other great apes...
s,
gorillaGorillas are the largest of the living primates. They are ground-dwelling and predominantly herbivorous. They inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
s,
chimpanzeeChimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
s, and
humanHumans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving...
s.
Catarrhini is a parvorder of the Primates, one of the three major divisions of the suborder
HaplorrhiniThe haplorrhines, the "dry-nosed" primates , are members of the Haplorrhini clade: the prosimian tarsiers and all of the true simians...
. It contains the
Old World monkeyThe Old World monkeys or Cercopithecidae are a group of primates, falling in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea in the clade Catarrhini. The Old World monkeys are native to Africa and Asia today, inhabiting a range of environments from tropical rain forest to savanna, scrubland, and mountainous...
s (
superfamilyIn biological classification, rank is the level in a taxonomic hierarchy. The most basic rank is that of species, the next most important is genus, and then family...
Cercopithecoidea,
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus...
Cercopithecidae) and the
apeAn ape is any member of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates. Due to its ambiguous nature, the term ape is less suitable as a means of describing taxonomic relationships....
s (superfamily Hominoidea).
The latter is further divided into the lesser apes (family Hylobatidae), consisting of the
gibbonGibbons are apes in the family Hylobatidae . The family is divided into four genera based on their diploid chromosome number: Hylobates , Hoolock , Nomascus , and Symphalangus . The extinct Bunopithecus sericus is a gibbon or gibbon-like ape which, until recently, was thought to be closely related...
s; and the
hominidsThe Hominidae The Hominidae The Hominidae (anglicized Hominids, also known as great apes
["Great ape" is a common name rather than a taxonomic label and there are differences in usage...]
or great apes (family Hominidae), consisting of the
orangutanThe orangutans are two endangered species of great apes. Known for their intelligence, they live in trees and are the largest living arboreal animal. They have longer arms than other great apes, and their hair is typically reddish-brown, instead of the brown or black hair typical of other great apes...
s,
gorillaGorillas are the largest of the living primates. They are ground-dwelling and predominantly herbivorous. They inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
s,
chimpanzeeChimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
s, and
humanHumans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving...
s. Older references described humans and their most close extinct relatives/ancestors as a family on its own and placed the great apes in the family Pongidae.
The other two major divisions of the suborder Haplorrhini are the
prosimianProsimians are suborders and families of mammals that are defined by being primates that are not monkeys or apes. They include, among others, lemurs, the Aye-aye, bushbabies, and tarsiers. They are considered to have characteristics that are more primitive than those of monkeys and apes. Prosimians...
tarsierTarsiers are haplorrhine primates of the genus Tarsius, a genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes...
s, which were formerly classified with the strepsirrhines, and the Platyrrhini (New World monkeys), which live in both
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
and
Central AmericaManagua
Guatemala City
San Salvador
San Pedro Sula
Panama City
San José, Costa Rica
Santa Ana, El Salvador
León
San Miguel|-|}...
.
Catarrhini means narrow nose, and the term describes their narrow, downward pointing nostrils. Like the platyrrhines (with the exception of the genus
Aotus), they are diurnal. Their tails (if they have tails) are not prehensile. They have flat fingernails.
Their dental formula is
Most species show considerable
sexual dimorphismSexual dimorphism is the systematic difference in form between individuals of different sex in the same species. Examples include colour , size, and the presence or absence of parts of the body used in courtship displays or fights, such as ornamental feathers, horns, antlers or tusks.-Examples:In...
and do not form a
pair bondIn biology, a pair bond is the strong affinity that develops in some species between the males and or females in a pair, potentially leading to breeding. Pair-bonding is a term coined in the 1940s that is frequently used in sociobiology and evolutionary psychology circles...
. Most, but not all, species live in social groups. They are all native to
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
and
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
.
Classification and evolution
The apes and Old World monkeys split from their New World monkey kin about 40 million years ago. The major catarrhine division occurred about 25 mya, with the gibbons separating from the great apes and humans about 18 mya.
- Parvorder Catarrhini
- Superfamily Cercopithecoidea
The Old World monkeys or Cercopithecidae are a group of primates, falling in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea in the clade Catarrhini. The Old World monkeys are native to Africa and Asia today, inhabiting a range of environments from tropical rain forest to savanna, scrubland, and mountainous...
- Family Cercopithecidae
The Old World monkeys or Cercopithecidae are a group of primates, falling in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea in the clade Catarrhini. The Old World monkeys are native to Africa and Asia today, inhabiting a range of environments from tropical rain forest to savanna, scrubland, and mountainous...
: Old World monkeys
- Superfamily Propliopithecoidea(Extinct)
- Family Propliopithecidae (includes Aegyptopithecus
Aegyptopithecus, also called the Dawn Ape, is an early fossil catarrhine that predates the divergence between hominoids and Old World monkeys. It is known from a single species Aegyptopithecus zeuxis and lived some 35-33 million years ago in the early part of the Oligocene epoch...
)
- Superfamily Hominoidea
- Family Hylobatidae: gibbons
- Family Hominidae
The Hominidae The Hominidae The Hominidae (anglicized Hominids, also known as great apes
["Great ape" is a common name rather than a taxonomic label and there are differences in usage...]
: great apes (including humans)
The tale of the late Asian catarrhines
In May 2005, three new primate fossils were discovered in the
Bugti HillsBugti Hills are a range of hills in eastern Balochistan, Pakistan. It includes the tribal tract called Bugti country.30 million years ago the Haplorrhinies: Bugtipithecus inexpectans, Phileosimias kamali and Phileosimias brahuiorum, similar to today's lemurs, lived in rainforests on the Bugti...
of
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
. These hills lock away many primate mysteries. Among them was made in 2001, when the early primate
BugtilemurBugtilemur is an extinct genus of Strepsirhine primate tentatively placed within family Cheirogaleidae, which includes the dwarf and mouse lemurs of Madagascar. It is represented by only one species, B. mathesoni, which was found in the Chitarwata Formation of Pakistan...
was discovered and led to the assumption that
lemurA lemur is a member of the biological infraorder Lemuriformes, a prosimian and strepsirrhine primate that is endemic to the island of Madagascar. The term "lemur" is derived from the Latin word lemures, meaning "spirits of the night" or "haunter". This likely refers to their large, reflective eyes...
s came from Asia, not Africa. The three primates called
Bugtipithecus inexpectans,
Phileosimias kamali, and
Phileosimias brahuiorum all date back to the
OligoceneThe Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...
some 30 million years ago - when monkeys dominated only Africa. These were small lemur-like catarrhines that prospered in an ancient tropical rainforest. Possibly these Asian catarrhines led nowhere in evolution, a side branch from
Eosimias. Other possible new catarrhines fossils were uncovered in China, Thailand, and Burma.