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Monkey
PRIMATE
WRITTEN BY: Colin Peter Groves
See Article History
Monkey, in general, any of nearly 200 species of tailed primate, with the exception
of lemurs, tarsiers, and lorises. The presence of a tail (even if only a tiny nub),
along with their narrow-chested bodies and other features of the skeleton,
distinguishes monkeys from apes. Most monkeys have a short, relatively flat face
without great prominence of the muzzle, although baboons and mandrills are notable
exceptions. The vast majority of species live in tropical forests, where they move
on all four limbs. All but the durukuli of tropical Central and South America are
active during the day, moving frequently in bands as they search for vegetation,
birds� eggs, smaller animals, and insects to eat. Monkeys are capable of sitting
upright, and, consequently, their hands are freed for many manipulative tasks.
Except for a few Old World forms, monkeys are predominantly arboreal, leaping from
limb to limb in their travels among the trees. Their hands and feet are both used
for grasping and typically have five digits, the thumb and big toe being divergent
from the others. Commonly, the digits have flattened nails, but the marmosets have
claws on all digits except the big toe, which bears a nail. On the ground, monkeys
walk with the entire sole of the foot touching the ground but with the palm of the
hand raised. They almost never walk on two legs (bipedally) and can stand erect for
only short periods, if at all.

Monkeys have large brains and are known for their inquisitiveness and intelligence.
Brain development, combined with the freeing of the hands and well-developed
vision, allows them a great latitude of activity. Most are good at solving complex
problems and learning from experience, but they do not quite reach the cognitive
levels of great apes. Some, especially the capuchins (genus Cebus), spontaneously
use objects as tools (e.g., stones to crack nuts). Others, such as baboons, readily
learn to use sticks to obtain food. However, in strong contrast to the great apes
(gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans), most monkeys do not appear to be very good
at learning from each others� experience�individuals more or less have to learn new
behaviours for themselves. A significant exception is the Japanese macaque (Macaca
fuscata). In field experiments, these monkeys were introduced to new foods such as
sweet potatoes and candies wrapped in paper. Once a few individuals had solved the
problems of getting at the new foods, their innovations gradually spread throughout
entire troops. These experiments have had implications in redefining cultural
behaviour.

Common squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus).

Common squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus).
� Gerry Ellis Nature Photography
Monkeys are highly social animals, and almost all live in troops consisting of
several females with young and either a single male (as in hamadryas baboons,
mandrills, most guenons, and most langurs) or several males (as in savannah baboons
and macaques). Usually, but not universally, the females stay in the troop in which
they were born and are thus closely related to each other. Males join new troops on
maturity, and so they are unrelated to each other and somewhat antagonistic. Like
humans and apes, female monkeys nurse their young and have a menstrual cycle,
albeit less copious. In some species, sexual activity is strictly confined to the
period around ovulation (estrus); in others, there appears to be little or no
restriction. Some species breed all year round; others have a period several months
long during which they experience no sexual cycles (anestrus).

Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx).

Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx).
Russ Kinne/Photo Researchers
READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC
species of apes
primate
tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans. The order Primates, with its 300 or more
species, is the third most diverse order of mammals, after rodents (Rodentia) and
bats (Chiroptera). Although there are some notable variations between some primate
groups, they share several

Old World Monkeys Versus New World Monkeys

Monkeys are arranged into two main groups: Old World and New World. Old World
monkeys all belong to one family, Cercopithecidae, which is related to apes and
humans, and together they are classified as catarrhines (meaning �downward-nosed�
in Latin). The New World monkeys are the platyrrhines (�flat-nosed�), a group
comprising five families. As their taxonomic names suggest, New World (platyrrhine)
and Old World (catarrhine) monkeys are distinguished by the form of the nose. New
World monkeys have broad noses with a wide septum separating outwardly directed
nostrils, whereas Old World monkeys have narrow noses with a thin septum and
downward-facing nostrils, as do apes and humans. Old World monkeys have hard, bare
�sitting pads� (ischial callosities) on the buttocks; New World monkeys lack these.
Many Old World monkeys have thumbs that can be opposed to the other fingers and so
can handle small objects precisely. None of the New World monkeys has such manual
dexterity. Indeed, in the hands of many species, the main divergence is between the
index and middle fingers; in a few species, the thumb is reduced or even absent.
Some New World monkey species have prehensile tails capable of supporting the
entire body weight or of grasping, for example, a proffered peanut. No Old World
monkeys have this ability, and macaques are nearly tailless.

saki; macaque
saki; macaque
From left, head of a saki (Pithecia) and a macaque (Macaca).
Drawing by R. Keane
monkey; prehensile tail
monkey; prehensile tail
Learn why New World monkeys have prehensile tails and Old World monkeys do not.
� MinuteEarth
New World monkeys live primarily in tropical South America, especially the Amazon
rainforests; the range of a few species extends northward as far as southern Mexico
or southward into northern Argentina. Among the smaller New World forms that have
endeared themselves to humans with their antics and their tamability are the alert
marmosets, often tufted and colourfully arrayed, and the inquisitive squirrel,
woolly, and capuchin monkeys�all of which exhibit in marked degree the curiosity
and cleverness ascribed to monkeys generally. Larger New World species include the
acrobatic spider monkeys and the noisy howlers. Other New World monkeys include
uakaris, sakis, and titis.

cotton-top tamarin
cotton-top tamarin
Cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) used in an experiment to determine whether
music containing calls from others of the same species affected behaviour.
Bryce Richter/University of Wisconsin-Madison
Old World monkeys live throughout Africa, on the Red Sea coast of Arabia, and in
Asia from Afghanistan to Japan and southeast to the islands of the Philippines,
Celebes, Bacan, and Timor. Some Old World monkeys have been successfully
naturalized in Gibraltar, France, Mauritius, Belau, and a few islands of the West
Indies. Old World monkeys include many that are often seen in zoos, especially the
beautifully coloured African guenons (e.g., mona, diana, white-nosed, green,
vervet, and grivet monkeys), colobus, mangabeys, and the chiefly Asiatic macaques.
The macaques include the Barbary �ape� of North Africa and the Rock of
Gibraltar�the only macaque outside Asia and the only wild monkey inhabiting any
part of Europe today�and the rhesus monkey of the Indian subcontinent, which has
been used considerably in medical research. The graceful langurs include the
hanuman, or sacred monkey, also of southern Asia. Among the more unusual monkeys
are the large and strikingly coloured African drills and mandrills, the proboscis
monkey of Borneo, and the rare and bizarre snub-nosed monkeys of China and Vietnam.
The Old World monkeys are divided into two subfamilies: Cercopithecinae and
Colobinae. The cercopithecines have cheek pouches, in which they store food; these
include baboons, macaques, guenons, and their relatives. The colobines lack cheek
pouches but have complicated three- or four-chambered stomachs, where bacterial
fermentation of cellulose and hemicellulose occurs and thereby enriches the
nutrient content of their diet, which consists partially of leaves and seeds.
Colobines include colobus monkeys, langurs, and their relatives.

The moustached monkey (Cercopithecus cephus) is a species of guenon.

The moustached monkey (Cercopithecus cephus) is a species of guenon.
Toni Angermayer/Photo Researchers
Because the ecological niches that they occupy are similar, there are many
parallels between Old and New World monkeys. In particular, the squirrel monkeys
(genus Saimiri) of the New World and the talapoin (genus Miopithecus) of West-
Central Africa are remarkably convergent; both are small (about 1 kg [2.2 pounds])
and greenish, live in large troops along rivers, and breed seasonally. Other
aspects of each group�s evolution, however, are unique. No New World monkey lives
on the savanna or has a multichambered cellulose-fermenting stomach, and no Old
World monkey is nocturnal like the durukuli. The closest analogue to the complex
society of the spider monkey is found not in an Old World monkey but in the
chimpanzee.

Classification
FAMILY CERCOPITHECIDAE (Old World monkeys)
103 or more species in 21 genera from Africa and Asia. The number of species stated
within a given genus may vary, depending on the taxonomic criteria used.
Subfamily Cercopithecinae
63 or more species in 11 genera.
Cercopithecus (guenons)
20 or more African species.
Macaca (macaques)
20 or so Asian and African species.
Cercocebus (mangabeys)
7 African species.
Papio (baboons)
5 African and Arabian species.
Lophocebus (mangabeys)
3 African species.
Mandrillus (drills and mandrills)
2 African species.
Miopithecus (talapoins)
2 African species.
Allenopithecus (Allen�s swamp monkey)
1 African species.
Chlorocebus (vervet, or green monkey)
1 to 6 African species.
Erythrocebus (patas monkey)
1 African species.
Theropithecus (gelada)
1 African species.
Subfamily Colobinae
40 or more species in 10 genera.
Trachypithecus (brow-ridged langurs)
10 or more Southeast Asian species.
Presbytis (leaf monkeys)
8 Southeast Asian species.
Colobus (black-and-white colobus monkeys)
5 African species.
Procolobus (olive colobus monkeys)
5 to 10 African species.
Rhinopithecus (snub-nosed monkeys)
4 Asian species.
Pygathrix (doucs)
3 continental Southeast Asian species.
Semnopithecus
2 to 8 South Asian species, including the Hanuman langur.
Nasalis (proboscis monkey)
1 Indonesian species.
Procolobus (red colobus monkey)
1 African species.
Simias (simakobu, or pig-tailed langur)
1 Indonesian species.
PLATYRRHINII (New World monkeys)
94 or more species in 5 families from tropical Central and South America. The
number of species stated within a given genus may vary, depending on the taxonomic
criteria used. Formerly, only two families were recognized within the group:
Callitrichidae (marmosets and tamarins) and Cebidae (all others, including
capuchins, titis, squirrel monkeys, and howler monkeys). Molecular evidence,
together with reassessments of morphological evidence, now indicates that marmosets
are more related to the capuchins, with spider monkeys and their relatives being
more divergent. Recent classifications, therefore, tend to recognize additional
families: Atelidae (spider monkeys and their relatives), Pitheciidae (sakis and
uakaris), and Aotidae (durukulis); Callitrichidae and Aotidae are sometimes lumped
into the Cebidae.
Family Callitrichidae (marmosets and tamarins)
27 or more species in 4 genera. Sometimes included in the family Cebidae as a
subfamily.
Saguinus (tamarins)
12 or more species.
Callithrix (�true� marmosets)
10 to 20 species.
Leontopithecus (lion tamarins)
4 species.
Callimico (Goeldi�s monkey)
1 species.
Family Pitheciidae
29 or so species in 4 genera.
Subfamily Callicebinae
Callicebus (titis)
20 or so species.
Subfamily Pitheciinae (sakis and uakaris)
Pithecia (sakis)
5 species.
Chiropotes (bearded sakis)
2 species.
Cacajao (uakaris)
2 species.
Family Atelidae
19 or more species in 5 genera.
Subfamily Atelinae (spider and woolly monkeys)
Ateles (spider monkeys)
4 to 8 species.
Lagothrix (woolly monkeys)
4 species.
Brachyteles (muriquis, or woolly spider monkeys)
2 species.
Oreonax (yellow-tailed, or Hendee�s, woolly monkey)
1 species.
Family Cebidae (capuchin and squirrel monkeys)
10 or more species in 2 genera.
Cebus (capuchin monkeys)
5 to 8 species.
Saimiri (squirrel monkeys)
5 to 8 species.
Family Aotidae
Aotus (durukulis, or night monkeys)
9 species.
Colin Peter Groves
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India
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Among the primates are various monkeys, including rhesus monkeys and gray, or
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An experiment with two monkeys showed how this may be done. The monkeys took turns
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locomotion: Climbing birds and mammals
Many monkeys use a climbing gait similar to the leg sequence of walking.
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forelegs and hind legs; essentially, they�
ADDITIONAL MEDIA
common woolly monkey
Diana monkey (Cercopithecus diana).
diana monkey
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locomotion
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In animal learning: Imitation and observational learning
SIV
In SIV
taxonomic classification
In human evolution: Reduction in tooth size
thermoreception
In thermoreception: Properties of thermoreceptors
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