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Prosimian

 
Prosimian

 
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Prosimian
 
 
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Prosimians are a group of mammals that includes all primate
Primate

A primate is a member of the biological order Primates , the group that contains lemurs, the Aye-aye, Lorisidaes, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including humans....
s except monkey
Monkey

A monkey is a nonhuman primate mammal with the exception usually of the lemurs and tarsiers. More specifically, the term monkey refers to a subset of monkeys: any of the smaller longer-tailed catarrhine or platyrrhine primates as contrasted with the apes....
s and apes. They include, among others, lemur
Lemur

Lemurs make up the infraorder Lemuriformes and are members of a group of primates known as prosimians. The term "lemur" is derived from the Latin word lemures, meaning "spirits of the night" or "ghosts"....
s, the Aye-aye
Aye-aye

The Aye-aye is a strepsirrhine native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker....
, bushbabies, and tarsier
Tarsier

Tarsiers are prosimian primates of the genus Tarsius, a Monotype genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes....
s. They are considered to have characteristics that are more primitive
Primitive (biology)

Primitive is a descriptive term often used in the field of evolution to describe particular species or Trait that are characteristic of an older evolutionary scale of development relative to more recent developments....
 than those of monkeys and apes.






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Ring Tailed Lemur and Twins
Prosimians are a group of mammals that includes all primate
Primate

A primate is a member of the biological order Primates , the group that contains lemurs, the Aye-aye, Lorisidaes, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including humans....
s except monkey
Monkey

A monkey is a nonhuman primate mammal with the exception usually of the lemurs and tarsiers. More specifically, the term monkey refers to a subset of monkeys: any of the smaller longer-tailed catarrhine or platyrrhine primates as contrasted with the apes....
s and apes. They include, among others, lemur
Lemur

Lemurs make up the infraorder Lemuriformes and are members of a group of primates known as prosimians. The term "lemur" is derived from the Latin word lemures, meaning "spirits of the night" or "ghosts"....
s, the Aye-aye
Aye-aye

The Aye-aye is a strepsirrhine native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker....
, bushbabies, and tarsier
Tarsier

Tarsiers are prosimian primates of the genus Tarsius, a Monotype genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes....
s. They are considered to have characteristics that are more primitive
Primitive (biology)

Primitive is a descriptive term often used in the field of evolution to describe particular species or Trait that are characteristic of an older evolutionary scale of development relative to more recent developments....
 than those of monkeys and apes. Prosimians are the only primates native to Madagascar
Madagascar

Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the List of islands by area, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are Endemism to Madagascar....
, and are also found in Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
 and Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
. With the exception of the tarsiers, all extant prosimians are in the suborder Strepsirrhini
Strepsirrhini

The clade Strepsirrhini is one of the two suborders of primates. One of the most distinguishing characteristic of these 118 species is their wet noses, and it is this feature for which the grouping is named....
. Because tarsiers, as well as some extinct prosimians, share a more recent common ancestor
Common descent

A group of organisms is said to have common descent if they have a common ancestor. In modern biology, it is generally accepted that all living organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor or ancestral gene pool....
 with monkeys and apes than with other prosimians, promsimians belong to a paraphyletic group and not a clade
Clade

A clade is a term used in modern alpha taxonomy, the scientific classification of living and fossil organisms, to describe a monophyletic group, defined as a group consisting of a single common ancestor and all its descendants.The term "monophyletic group" is used in this article in the conventional sense of "an a...
.

The adapid
Adapid

Adapids are a diverse group of extinct primates that primarily radiated during the Eocene epoch between about 55 and 34 million years ago. However, one specialized endemic Asian group survived into the Miocene....
s are an extinct grouping that were most certainly prosimians and closely related to the strepsirhines. The omomyid
Omomyid

Omomyids are a diverse group of extinct primates that radiated during the Eocene epoch between about 55 and 34 million years ago . Fossils of omomyids are found in North America, Europe, Asia, and possibly Africa....
s are another extinct group of prosimians but they are believed to be haplorrhines, closely related to the tarsiers, but an outgroup to the rest of the haplorrhines.

Classification


The prosimians were once considered a suborder of the Primate order
Order (biology)

In Biological classification used in biology, the order is a taxonomic rank between class and family . The superorder is a rank between class and order....
 (suborder Prosimii)(Gr. pro, before, + simia, ape). They have been shown, however, to be paraphyletic - that is, their most recent common ancestor was a prosimian but it has some non-prosimian descendents (i.e. monkeys and apes). This relationship is shown by the ranks (prosimians in bold) in the list below of the current Primate classification between the order and family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
 level. The classification is used on a more behavioural term nowadays, due to the lack of a unique last common ancestor.

  • ORDER PRIMATES
    • Suborder Strepsirrhini
      Strepsirrhini

      The clade Strepsirrhini is one of the two suborders of primates. One of the most distinguishing characteristic of these 118 species is their wet noses, and it is this feature for which the grouping is named....
      : non-tarsier prosimians
      • Infraorder Lemuriformes
        • Superfamily Cheirogaleoidea
          • Family Cheirogaleidae
            Cheirogaleidae

            Cheirogaleidae is the family of strepsirrhine primates that contains the various dwarf and mouse lemurs. Like all other lemurs, cheirogaleids live exclusively on the island of Madagascar....
            : dwarf lemurs and mouse-lemurs
        • Superfamily Lemuroidea
          Lemuroidea

          Lemuroidea is the superfamily of strepsirrhine primates that contains many of the lemur species, including true lemurs, sportive lemurs, bamboo lemurs, woolly lemurs, and sifakas....
          • Family Lemuridae
            Lemuridae

            Lemuridae is a family of prosimian primates native to Madagascar, and one of four families commonly known as lemurs. These animals were thought to be the evolutionary predecessors of monkeys and apes, but this is no longer considered correct....
            : lemurs
          • Family Lepilemuridae: sportive lemurs
          • Family Indriidae
            Indriidae

            The Indridae are a family of strepsirrhine primates. They are medium to large sized lemurs with only four teeth in the toothcomb instead of the usual six....
            : woolly lemurs and allies
      • Infraorder Chiromyiformes
        Aye-aye

        The Aye-aye is a strepsirrhine native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker....
        • Family Daubentoniidae
          Aye-aye

          The Aye-aye is a strepsirrhine native to Madagascar that combines rodent-like teeth with a long, thin middle finger to fill the same ecological niche as a woodpecker....
          : Aye-aye
      • Infraorder Lorisiformes
        Lorisiformes

        Lorisiformes are a group of primates found throughout Africa and Asia. Members of this infraorder include the galagos and the lorises. As strepsirrhines, they are related to the lemurs and the Aye-aye, but it is currently unknown if the Aye-aye is more closely related to the lemurs, or represents a form ancestral to both Lemurifores and the L...
        • Family Lorisidae
          Lorisidae

          Lorisidae is a family of strepsirrhine primates. The lorids are all slim arboreal animals and include the lorises, pottos and angwantibos....
          : lorises, pottos and allies
        • Family Galagidae: galagos
    • Suborder Haplorrhini
      Haplorrhini

      The haplorrhines, the "dry-nosed" primates , are members of the Haplorrhini Cladistics: the prosimian tarsiers and all of the true simians ....
      : tarsiers, monkeys and apes
      • Infraorder Tarsiiformes
        Tarsier

        Tarsiers are prosimian primates of the genus Tarsius, a Monotype genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes....
        • Family Tarsiidae
          Tarsier

          Tarsiers are prosimian primates of the genus Tarsius, a Monotype genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes....
          : tarsiers
      • Infraorder Simiiformes
        • Parvorder Platyrrhini: New World monkeys (4 families)
        • Parvorder Catarrhini
          Catarrhini

          Catarrhini is a parvorder of the Primates, one of the three major divisions of the suborder Haplorrhini. It contains the Old World monkeys and the apes ....
          : humans and other Old World primates (3 families)