New World monkey in the context of "Night monkey"

Haplorhini (/hæpləˈraɪnaɪ/), 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).

The simians, anthropoids, or higher primates are primates of the infraorder Simiiformes (/ˈsɪmi.ɪfɔːrmiːz/) containing all animals traditionally called monkeys and apes. More precisely, they consist of the parvorders Platyrrhini (New World monkeys) and Catarrhini, the latter of which consists of the family Cercopithecidae (Old World monkeys in the stricter sense) and the superfamily Hominoidea (apes – including humans).

The simians are sister group to the tarsiers (Tarsiiformes), together forming the haplorhines. The radiation occurred about 60 million years ago (during the Cenozoic era); 40 million years ago, simians colonized South America, giving rise to the New World monkeys. The remaining simians (catarrhines) split about 25 million years ago into Cercopithecidae and apes (including humans).

Apes, collectively Hominoidea (/ˌhɒmɪˈnɔɪdi.ə/; hominoids), are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. They were more widespread in Africa, Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and, including humans, are found globally. Apes are more closely related to Old World monkeys (family Cercopithecidae) than to the New World monkeys (Platyrrhini), with both Old World monkeys and apes placed in the clade Catarrhini. Apes do not have tails due to a mutation of the TBXT gene. In traditional and non-scientific use, the term ape can include tailless primates taxonomically considered Cercopithecidae (such as the Barbary ape and black ape), and is thus not equivalent to the scientific taxon Hominoidea. There are two extant branches of the superfamily Hominoidea: the gibbons, or lesser apes; and the hominids, or great apes.

• The family Hylobatidae, the lesser apes, include four genera and a total of 20 species of gibbon, including the lar gibbon and the siamang, all native to Asia. They are highly arboreal and bipedal on the ground. They have lighter bodies and smaller social groups than great apes.
• The family Hominidae (hominids), the great apes, includes four genera comprising three extant species of orangutans, two extant species of gorillas, two extant species of chimpanzees, and humans.

Except for gorillas and humans, hominoids are agile climbers of trees. Apes eat a variety of plants and animals. Plants, which can include fruits, leaves, stalks, roots, nuts, and seeds, make up the bulk of their diet. Human diets are sometimes substantially different from that of other hominoids, due in part to the development of technology and a wide range of habitation.

Brachiation (from "brachium", Latin for "arm"), or arm swinging, is a form of arboreal locomotion in which primates swing from tree limb to tree limb using only their arms. During brachiation, the body is alternately supported under each forelimb. This form of locomotion is the primary means of locomotion for the small gibbons and siamangs of southeast Asia. Gibbons in particular use brachiation for as much as 80% of their locomotor activities. Some New World monkeys, such as spider monkeys and muriquis, were initially classified as semibrachiators and move through the trees with a combination of leaping and brachiation. Some New World species also practice suspensory behaviors by using their prehensile tail, which acts as a fifth grasping hand. Evidence has shown that the extinct ape Proconsul from the Miocene of East Africa developed an early form of suspensory behaviour, and was therefore referred to as a probrachiator.

Upon further observations and more in depth understandings of the anatomy and behaviour of primates, the terms semibrachiator and probrachiator have largely fallen out of favour within the scientific community. Currently, researchers classify gibbons and siamangs as the only true brachiators and classify the great apes as modified brachiators. All other brachiation behaviours that do not meet either of these classifications are referred to as forearm suspensory postures and locomotion.

The parvorder Catarrhini /kætəˈraɪnaɪ/ (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.

Old World monkeys are primates in the family Cercopithecidae (/ˌsɜːrkoʊpɪˈθɛsɪdiː/). Twenty-four genera and 138 species are recognized, making it the largest primate family. Old World monkey genera include baboons (genus Papio), red colobus (genus Piliocolobus), and macaques (genus Macaca). Common names for other Old World monkeys include the talapoin, guenon, colobus, douc (douc langur, genus Pygathrix), vervet, gelada, mangabey (a group of genera), langur, mandrill, drill, surili (Presbytis), patas, and proboscis monkey.

Phylogenetically, they are more closely related to apes than to New World monkeys, with the Old World monkeys and apes diverging from a common ancestor between 25 million and 30 million years ago. This clade, containing the Old World monkeys and the apes, diverged from a common ancestor with the New World monkeys around 45 to 55 million years ago. The individual species of Old World monkey are more closely related to each other than to apes or any other grouping, with a common ancestor around 14 million years ago.