primate: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Oct. 30, 2026

News •

Germophobe Primates Want to Avoid Getting Sick, Too • Oct. 20, 2026, 3:00 AM ET (New York Times)

Facts

Also Known As	Primates

Photos and Videos

Illustration comparing the body plans of representative anthropoids, showing a male western lowland gorilla, a male human, a male bonobo, a female Bornean orangutan, and male and female northern white-cheeked gibbons, all labeled and depicted to scale.

Old World and New World monkeys

species of lemurs

Illustration of a male western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) standing on all fours, showing its muscular build, dark fur, and prominent brow ridge, with a scale bar below for size reference.

A common chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) sits on a rock holding a long blade of grass in its mouth, with dense green foliage in the background.

mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei)

Two Japanese macaques at Jigokudani Monkey Park in Nagano, Japan, with one grooming the other's fur as they sit close together.

red-bellied lemur (Eulemur rubriventer)

red colobus monkey (Piliocolobus badius temminckii)

Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)

Why don't humans have tails?

The video thumbnail image shows two black and white photos of monkey and ape heads, surrounded by blue and pink circles.

Observe a baboon troop descend from treetops to rove, play, and forage in the Tanzanian landscape

How snow monkeys survive winter in the Japanese Alps

Know how monkeys use different alarm calls for specific dangers and how some birds can understand these alarm calls

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Topics

australopith Proconsulidae Amphipithecidae prosimian anthropoid Haplorrhini lemur flying lemur Cebidae Daubentoniidae artiodactyl perissodactyl cetacean bat carnivore rodent insectivore sirenian lagomorph pangolin

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Key People

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Edward Tyson

English physician

Nine-Banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus).

A Is for Animal Quiz

Giraffe standing in grass, Kenya.

Know Your Mammals Quiz

Mute swan with cygnet. (birds)

Match the Baby Animal to Its Mama Quiz

Dromedary camels (Camelus dromedarius). Animals, mammals.

Ultimate Animals Quiz

Sea otter (Enhydra lutris), also called great sea otter, rare, completely marine otter of the northern Pacific, usually found in kelp beds. Floats on back. Looks like sea otter laughing. saltwater otters

Animal Group Names

Lion (panthera leo)

Deadliest Animals Quiz

The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is seen in Switzerland on December 2024

Animal Factoids

Young chimpanzee dressed in a shirt and sweater vest, scratching his head thinking. (primates)

Wild Words from the Animal Kingdom Vocabulary Quiz