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Semnopithecus priam

Tufted gray langur
MudumalaiLangur2.jpg
Tufted gray langur in Mudumalai National Park, Tamil Nadu, India.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Cercopithecidae
Genus: Semnopithecus
Species: S. priam
Binomial name
Semnopithecus priam
Blyth, 1844
Tufted Gray Langur area.png
Tufted gray langur range

The tufted gray langur (Semnopithecus priam), also known as Madras gray langur, and Coromandel sacred langur, is an Old World monkey, one of the species of langurs. This, like other gray langurs, is mainly a leaf-eating monkey. It is found in southeast India and Sri Lanka. It is one of three Semnopithecus species named after characters from The Iliad, S. hector and S. ajax being the others. In Sinhala language, it is known as හැලි වදුරා (Heli wandura).

Males are larger than females.

In Sri Lankan subspecies, dorsal area gray to brownish gray in color, getting darker with the age. Underparts are light grayish. Short whitish beard and sideburns present. The hairs of the crown form a distinct pointed tuft or crest, that meets at a central point, hence the name. Black eyebrows project outward. Head scarcely paler or not paler than back. Hands and feet are same color as limbs.

There are two subspecies, Semnopithecus priam priam in Sri Lanka and the southern Western Ghats in India, and Semnopithecus priam thersites from Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in India.

There are two theories about the evolution of these two subspecies. According to one theory, Semnopithecus priam arose from subspecies Semnopithecus vetulus philbricki. With the glacial fluctuations, and far apart of Indian subcontinent, pushed two taxa apart, but both retained key adaptation to folivory, and a ruminant-like stomach. Thereafter, S. priam invaded India, when there was a land bridge and there split off into two subspecies of S. priam. In the other theory, Sri Lankan subspecies S. priam thersites evolved from the endemic S. vetulus, whereas, Indian subspecies S. priam priam evolved from the S. johnii, which results the genetic variations between two S. priam subspecies.


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