Primate

The primates are members of the              Scientific classification
Primates order of mammals. These
include lemurs, monkeys, and apes       Kingdom:Animalia
(including humans). The English         Phylum: Chordata
singular primate is a back-formation    Class:  Mammalia
from the Latin name Primates, which
itself was the plural of the Latin                   Families
primas.                                   * Suborder Strepsirhini
                                            (prosimians)
All primates exhibit pentadactyly              o Superfamily Lorisoidea
(they have five fingers), a                    o Galagidae (galagos)
generalized dental pattern, and a              o Lorisidae (lorises and
primitive (unspecialized) body plan.             pottos)
Another distinguishing feature of              o Daubentoniidae (aye-aye)
primates is fingernails. Opposing              o Cheirogaleidae (dwarf
thumbs are also a defining primates              lemurs and mouse lemurs)
feature, but are not limited to this           o Superfamily Lemuroidea
order; opossums, for example, also             o Megaladapidae
have opposing thumbs. In primates, the         o Lemuridae (common lemurs)
combination of opposing thumbs, short          o Superfamily Indrioidea
fingernails (rather than claws) and            o Indridae
long, inward-closing fingers is a         * Suborder Haplorhini (monkeys
relic of the ancestral practice of          and apes)
brachiating through trees. In this             o Superfamily Tarsioida
context, this mosaic of features was           o Tarsiidae
useful for grasping branches,                  o Superfamily Platyrrhini
especially mid-sized ones no thicker           o Callitrichidae
than three inches in diameter.                 o Cebidae
Forward-facing color binocular vision          o Superfamily Catarrhini
was also useful for our brachiating            o Cercopithecidae (Old World
ancestors, particularly for finding              monkeys)
and collecting food. All primates,             o Hylobatidae (gibbons)
even those that lack the features              o Hominidae (great apes and
typical of other primates (like                  humans)
lorises), share eye orbit
characteristics that distinguish them
from other taxonomic orders.

In primate species, the males have a larger figure than the females. The
following is a table in kilogram (kg), pound (lb), gram (g), and ounce (oz).

     Species           Female           Male

 Gorilla          105 kg (231 lb)  205 kg (452 lb)

 Human            52 kg (114 lb)   75 kg (165 lb)

 Patas monkey     5.5 kg (12 lb)   10 kg (22 kg)

 Proboscis Monkey 9 kg (20 lb)     19 kg (42 lb)

 Pygmy marmoset   120 g (4.2 oz)   140 g (5 oz)

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