Monkeys {monkey} include New World monkeys and Old World monkeys. Monkeys evolved from prosimians. First monkeys were like New World monkeys.
ape or monkey {simian}.
Smaller monkeys are diurnal and eat leaves {folivore}.
Monkeys can be larger, be active day and night, and eat fruit {frugivore}|. Primate frugivores have larger brains with more neocortex than same-size primate folivores. Fruit supply and type always varies, because different plants bear fruit at different times and locations in tropical forest. Frugivores require better visual perception and memory.
Marmosets, tamarins, squirrel monkeys, and spider monkeys {New World monkey}| were first monkeys.
evolution
New World monkeys came from Africa to South America on floating vegetation. Parapithecus was ancestor of Old World monkeys.
habitat
New World monkeys live in trees.
anatomy: tail
New World monkeys have prehensile tails.
anatomy: nostrils
New World monkeys have upward-pointing nostrils (Platyrrhini) and broad flat noses.
brain: striate cortex
Primate striate cortex can differ from motor cortex {giant Betz cell} in laminar organization, cell number, cell types, and general connectivity patterns.
brain: ventral premotor area
Ventral premotor area aids visually guided hand movements and learning by watching.
brain: Wernicke's area
Monkeys have Wernicke's area at vision, audition, and somaesthetic cortical junction.
senses
In monkeys, object perception uses one sense pathway involving all senses. Humans use this pathway only at birth.
senses: vision
Fovea allows sharp vision in visual-field center. Brain pathway for shapes and brain pathway for movement and contrast evolved. Brain area V1 has blobs and interblobs. V4, V8, and MT brain areas evolved.
self
Tamarin monkeys are curious about their bodies and movements they see in mirrors, unlike cats and dogs. Monkeys can have sense of self [Hauser, 2000].
mother
Monkeys normally cling to mothers for contact and security. If mother was absent from monkey infants, infants stayed afraid of strange objects and did not explore them. Later, the monkeys had sexual and mothering problems. If monkeys have no play and no mother, they have more aggression and wariness. Baby monkeys cling to cloth monkeys as mother substitutes [Harlow and Harlow, 1949].
suffering
Monkeys can suffer, because they can do something about conditions that make them suffer [Povinelli, 1998].
signal
Vervet monkeys make different alarm calls for eagles, leopards, and snakes and use grunts in social interactions [Cheney and Seyfarth, 1990] [Seyfarth and Cheney, 1992].
Putty-nosed monkeys make alarm calls for crowned eagles that make other monkeys stand still. Calls for leopards cause them look at ground. They can combine the calls to signal group to leave place.
Marmosets, tamarins, squirrel monkeys, and spider monkeys live in trees {arboreal}| and have prehensile tails.
Small monkeys {marmoset} have soft fur, come from South America and Central America, and have claws instead of nails.
monkey {rhesus monkey}.
monkey {spider monkey}.
monkey {squirrel monkey}.
African monkeys {Old World monkey} include capuchin, macaque, baboon, and mandrill. Macaques include rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) and crab-eating monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). Old World monkeys are arboreal.
nostrils
Old World monkeys (Cercopithecidae) have down-pointing nostrils and short narrow noses (Catarrhini), allowing better vision and more space for frontal lobes.
sitting pads
Old World monkeys sit upright on sometimes colored buttock sitting pads.
tailless
Old World monkeys have no prehensile tails.
reproduction
Old World monkeys have sexual dimorphism and male rivalry.
digestion
Old World monkeys ate fruit and had 32 teeth.
senses
Short narrow noses had nose openings pointed down (Catarrhini), for better vision and more space available for frontal lobes. They had three cone types and full color vision. Postorbital septum isolated eyes from temporal muscles.
evolution
Old World monkeys differentiated from New World monkeys in Oligocene epoch.
types
Xenopithecus was ancient Old World Monkey. Aegyptopithecus was Old-World monkey in Fayum deposits in Egypt.
Outline of Knowledge Database Home Page
Description of Outline of Knowledge Database
Date Modified: 2022.0225