Old World monkey
| Old World monkeys Temporal range: Oligocene–Recent |
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|---|---|
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| Olive baboon (Papio anubis) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Haplorhini |
| Superfamily: | Cercopithecoidea |
| Family: |
Cercopithecidae Gray, 1821 |
| Type genus | |
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Cercopithecus |
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| Subfamilies | |
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Cercopithecinae - 12 genera |
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Cercopithecinae - 12 genera
Colobinae - 11 genera
The Old World monkeys or Cercopithecidae are a family of catarrhines, the only family in the superfamily Cercopithecoidea in the clade (or parvorder) of Catarrhini.
The Old World monkeys are native to Africa and Asia today, inhabiting a range of environments from tropical rain forest to savanna, shrubland and mountainous terrain, and are also known from Europe in the fossil record. However, a (possibly introduced) free-roaming group of monkeys still survives in Gibraltar (Europe) to this day. Old World monkeys include many of the most familiar species of non-human primates, such as baboons and macaques.
Old World monkeys are medium to large in size, and range from arboreal forms, such as the colobus monkeys, to fully terrestrial forms, such as the baboons. The smallest is the talapoin, with a head and body 34–37 cm in length, and weighing between 0.7 and 1.3 kilograms, while the largest is the male mandrill (the females of the species being significantly smaller), at around 70 cm in length, and weighing up to 50 kilograms.
By superficial appearance, Old World monkeys are unlike apes in that most have tails (the family name means "tailed ape") and, unlike the New World monkeys (platyrrhines), in that their tails are never prehensile. Technically, the distinction of catarrhines from platyrrhines depends on the structure of the nose, and the distinction of Old World monkeys from apes depends on dentition (the number of teeth is the same in both, but they are shaped differently). In platyrrhines, the nostrils face sideways, while in catarrhines, they face downward. Other distinctions include both a tubular ectotympanic (ear bone), and eight, not twelve, premolars in catarrhines, giving them a dental formula of: 2.1.2.32.1.2.3
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