Ape

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For other uses, see Ape (disambiguation).
For an explanation of very similar terms, see Hominidae.
Hominoids or Apes
Temporal range: Late Oligocene
Holocene
Pre

O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N

Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorrhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Parvorder: Catarrhini
Superfamily:
Hominoidea
Gray, 1825
Type species
Homo sapiens
Linnaeus, 1758
Families
Proconsulidae
Afropithecidae
Hylobatidae
Hominidae
Apes (Hominoidea) are a branch of Old World tailless anthropoid catarrhine primates native to
Africa and Southeast Asia and distinguished by a wide degree of freedom at the shoulder joint
indicating the influence of brachiation. There are two main branches: the gibbons, or lesser apes;
and the hominids or great apes.
Lesser apes (Hylobatidae) include four genera and sixteen 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 Hominidae include orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and humans.
[1][2]

Alternatively, the family are collectively described as the great apes.
[3][4][5][6]
There are two
extant species in the orangutan genus (Pongo), two species in the gorilla genus, and a
single extant species Homo sapiens in the human genus (Homo). Chimpanzees and
bonobos are closely related to each other and they represent the two species in the genus
Pan.
Members of the superfamily are called hominoids (not to be confused with the family of
"hominids" - great apes, the subfamily of hominines, the tribe of "hominins" aka the human
clade, or the subtribe of hominans).
Some or all hominoids are also called "apes". However, the term "ape" is used in several
different senses. It has been used as a synonym for "monkey" or for any tailless primate with a
humanlike appearance.
[7]
Thus the Barbary macaque, a kind of monkey, is popularly called the
"Barbary ape" to indicate its lack of a tail. Biologists have used the term "ape" to mean a member
of the superfamily Hominoidea other than humans,
[3]
or more recently to mean all members of
the superfamily Hominoidea, so that "ape" becomes another word for "hominoid".
[6][8]
See also
Primate: Historical and modern terminology.
Except for gorillas and humans, hominoids are agile climbers of trees. Their diet is best
described as frugivorous and folivorous, consisting mainly of fruit, nuts, seeds, including grass
seeds, and in some cases other animals (consumed primarily for social purposes not dietary),
either hunted or scavenged (or farmed in the case of humans), along with anything else available
and easily digested. Meat is rarely consumed and not by every member of a species, and when it
is usually the juice is extracted and main parts spit out.
[citation needed]

Most non-human hominoids are rare or endangered. The chief threat to most of the endangered
species is loss of tropical rainforest habitat, though some populations are further imperiled by
hunting for bushmeat.
Contents
[hide]
1 Historical and modern terminology
o 1.1 Greater and lesser
2 Biology
o 2.1 Behaviour and cognition
o 2.2 Distinction from monkeys
3 History of hominoid taxonomy
o 3.1 Changes in taxonomy
4 Classification and evolution
5 See also
6 Notes and references
7 External links
Historical and modern terminology[edit]
"Ape", from Old English apa, with cognates in several other Germanic languages, is a word of
uncertain origin.
[9]
It is possibly an onomatopoetic imitation of animal chatter.
[citation needed]
The term
has a history of rather imprecise usage. Its earliest meaning was that of any non-human primate,
later often specialized to mean a tailless (and therefore exceptionally human-like) primate.
[7][10]

The original usage of "ape" in English might have referred to the baboon, an Old World
monkey.
[citation needed]
Two tailless species of macaque have common names including "ape": the
Barbary ape of North Africa (introduced into Gibraltar), Macaca sylvanus, and the Sulawesi
black ape or Celebes crested macaque, M. nigra.
As zoological knowledge developed, it became clear that taillessness occurred in a number of
different and otherwise distantly related species. The term "ape" was then used in two different
senses, as shown in the 1910 Encyclopdia Britannica entry. Either "ape" was still used for a
tailless humanlike primate or it became a synonym for "monkey".
[7]

Sir Wilfrid Le Gros Clark was one of the primatologists who developed the idea that there were
"trends" in primate evolution and that the living members of the order could be arranged in a
series, leading through "monkeys" and "apes" to humans. Within this tradition, "ape" refers to all
the members of the superfamily Hominoidea, except humans.
[3]
Thus "apes" are a paraphyletic
group, meaning that although all the species of apes descend from a common ancestor, the group
does not include all the descendants of that ancestor, because humans are excluded.
[11]