Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Other similar basal primates were widespread in Eurasia and Africa during the tropical conditions of the Paleocene and Eocene. Purgatorius is the genus of the four extinct species believed to be the earliest example of a primate or a proto-primate, a primatomorph precursor to the Plesiadapiformes, dating to as old as 66 million years ago.
The order Primates consists of 505 extant species belonging to 81 genera. This does not include hybrid species or extinct prehistoric species. Modern molecular studies indicate that the 81 genera can be grouped into 16 families; these families are divided between two named suborders and are grouped in those suborders into named clades, and some of these families are subdivided into named ...
A primate is a member of the biological order Primates, the group that contains lemurs, the aye-aye, lorisids, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including great apes. With the exception of humans, who inhabit every continent on Earth, most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions of the Americas , Africa and ...
Sir Wilfrid Le Gros Clark was one of the primatologists who developed the idea of trends in primate evolution and the methodology of arranging the living members of an order into an "ascending series" leading to humans. [7] Commonly used names for groups of primates such as prosimians, monkeys, lesser apes, and great apes reflect this methodology.
This relationship is shown by the ranks (prosimians in bold) in the list below of the current primate classification between the order and infraorder level. The term "prosimian" is considered taxonomically obsolete, [15] although it is used to emphasize similarities between strepsirrhines, tarsiers, and the early primates. [16] Order Primates
Human taxonomy is the classification of the human species (systematic name Homo sapiens, Latin: "wise man") within zoological taxonomy. The systematic genus, Homo, is designed to include both anatomically modern humans and extinct varieties of archaic humans.
The phylogenetic split of Hominidae into the subfamilies Homininae and Ponginae is dated to the middle Miocene, roughly 18 to 14 million years ago.This split is also referenced as the "orangutan–human last common ancestor" by Jeffrey H. Schwartz, professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Arts and Sciences, and John Grehan, director of science at the Buffalo Museum.
The closest relatives of primates are the extinct plesiadapiforms, the modern colugos (commonly and inaccurately named "flying lemurs"), and treeshrews. [3] Some of the earliest known true primates are represented by the fossil groups Omomyidae, Eosimiidae, and Adapiformes. [5] The relationship between known fossil primate families remains unclear.