Simia in the context of "Haplorhini"

⭐ In the context of Haplorhini, Simia (which encompasses monkeys and apes) is considered a major grouping alongside which other primate type?

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⭐ Core Definition: Simia

In his Systema Naturae of 1758, Carl Linnaeus divided the Order Primates within Mammalia into four genera: Homo, Simia, Lemur, and Vespertilio. His Vespertilio included all bats, and has since been moved from Primates to Chiroptera. Homo contained humans, Lemur contained four lemurs and a colugo, and Simia contained the other Primates. Linnaeus did not think that Homo should form a distinct group from Simia, classifying them separately mainly to avoid conflict with religious authorities. If this is taken into account, Simia (including Homo) would be roughly equivalent to the Suborder Haplorhini of the Primates (while Lemur would be roughly equivalent to the Suborder Strepsirrhini).

Homo, Lemur, and Vespertilio have survived as generic names, but Simia has not. All the species have since been moved to other genera, and in 1929, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in its Opinion 114 that Simia be suppressed. The genus Simias is distinct and remains valid, containing a single species, the pig-tailed langur (Simias concolor).

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👉 Simia in the context of Haplorhini

Haplorhini (/hæpləˈrn/), the haplorhines (Greek for "simple-nosed") or the "dry-nosed" primates is a suborder of primates containing the tarsiers and the simians (Simiiformes or anthropoids), as sister of the Strepsirrhini ("moist-nosed"). The name is sometimes spelled Haplorrhini. The simians include catarrhines (Old World monkeys and apes, including humans), and the platyrrhines (New World monkeys).

Haplorhini was proposed by Pocock in 1918 when he realized the tarsiers were actually sister to the monkeys rather than the lemurs, also following findings of Hugh Cuming 80 years earlier and Linnaeus 160 years earlier. For Linnaeus, this ensemble of primates constituted a genus "Simia". For religious reasons, Homo constituted its own genus (which has remained).

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Simia in the context of Catarrhini

The parvorder Catarrhini /kætəˈrn/ (known commonly as catarrhine monkeys, Old World anthropoids, or Old World monkeys) consists of the Cercopithecoidea (Old World monkeys) and Hominoidea (apes). In 1812, Geoffroy grouped those two groups together and established the name Catarrhini, "Old World monkeys", ("singes de l'Ancien Monde" in French). Its sister in the infraorder Simiiformes (simians) is the parvorder Platyrrhini (New World monkeys). There has been some resistance to directly designate apes (and thus humans) as monkeys despite the scientific evidence, so "Old World monkey" may be taken to mean the Cercopithecoidea or the Catarrhini. That apes are monkeys was already realized by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in the 18th century. Linnaeus placed this group in 1758 together with what we now recognise as the tarsiers and the New World monkeys, in a single genus "Simia" (sans Homo). The Catarrhini are all native to Africa and Asia. Members of this parvorder are called catarrhines.

The Catarrhini are the sister group to the New World monkeys, the Platyrrhini. Some six million years before the ape - Cercopithecoidea bifurcation, the Platyrrhini emerged within "monkeys" by migration to South America from Afro-Arabia (the Old World), likely by ocean.

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