Description
A monkey is any cercopithecoid (Old World monkey) or platyrrhine (New World monkey) primate. All primates that are not prosimians or apes are monkeys. The 264 known extant monkey species represent two of the three groupings of simian primates (the third group being the 22 species of apes). Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent and, unlike apes, monkeys usually have tails.
What's wrong? Am I funny?
The New World monkeys are classified within the parvorder Platyrrhini, whereas the Old World monkeys (superfamily Cercopithecoidea) form part of the parvorder Catarrhini, which also includes the apes. Thus, scientifically speaking, monkeys are paraphyletic (not a single coherent group) and Old World monkeys are actually more closely related to the apes than they are to the New World monkeys.
What's wrong? Am I funny?The New World monkeys are classified within the parvorder Platyrrhini, whereas the Old World monkeys (superfamily Cercopithecoidea) form part of the parvorder Catarrhini, which also includes the apes. Thus, scientifically speaking, monkeys are paraphyletic (not a single coherent group) and Old World monkeys are actually more closely related to the apes than they are to the New World monkeys.
What do you think of my hair-do?Etymology
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "monkey" may originate in a German version of the Reynard the Fox fable, published circa 1580. In this version of the fable, a character named Moneke is the son of Martin the Ape. The word Moneke may have been derived from the Italian monna, which means "a female ape".
I am not a beggar.
The term 'monkey' is an artificial grouping; it is not a "good" taxon, but instead it is a paraphyletic group, like "fish". A "good" taxon, as most modern biologists consider it, is a monophyletic group, that is, a group consisting of all the evolutionary descendants of a single ancestor species. The term 'monkey' covers all platyrrhines (flat, broad noses) and some catarrhines (nostrils-downwards), but excludes the apes.
There is no cold time if we are always together.
Due to its size (up to 1 m/3 ft) the Mandrill is often thought to be an ape, but it is actually an Old World monkey. Also, a few monkey species deceptively have the word "ape" in their common name, such as the Barbary Ape.
A group of monkeys may be referred to as a mission or a tribe.
I am not a beggar.The term 'monkey' is an artificial grouping; it is not a "good" taxon, but instead it is a paraphyletic group, like "fish". A "good" taxon, as most modern biologists consider it, is a monophyletic group, that is, a group consisting of all the evolutionary descendants of a single ancestor species. The term 'monkey' covers all platyrrhines (flat, broad noses) and some catarrhines (nostrils-downwards), but excludes the apes.
There is no cold time if we are always together.Due to its size (up to 1 m/3 ft) the Mandrill is often thought to be an ape, but it is actually an Old World monkey. Also, a few monkey species deceptively have the word "ape" in their common name, such as the Barbary Ape.
A group of monkeys may be referred to as a mission or a tribe.
There are some louses on my hair.
