Primate Facts
What are Primates?
There are an estimated 704 species and subspecies of primates. 69% are threatened by extinction.
Primates are mammals that typically have large highly developed brains, forward-facing color vision, flexible hands and feet with opposable thumbs, and fingernails. Primates have slower developmental rates than other similarly sized mammals and reach maturity later, but have longer lifespans. With the exception of humans, who live throughout the globe, most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions.
Primates are mammals that typically have large highly developed brains, forward-facing color vision, flexible hands and feet with opposable thumbs, and fingernails. Primates have slower developmental rates than other similarly sized mammals and reach maturity later, but have longer lifespans. With the exception of humans, who live throughout the globe, most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions.
The biological order of Primates is divided into these classifications:
- Great Apes: bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas, humans, and orangutans
- Lesser Apes: gibbons
- Monkeys: baboons, capuchin monkeys, colobus monkeys, drills, geladas, guenons, howler monkeys, langurs, macaques, mandrills, mangabeys, marmosets, night monkeys, patas monkeys, proboscis monkeys, sakis, snub-nosed monkeys, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, tamarins, titis, uakaris, and woolly monkeys
- Prosimians: the oldest, most “primitive” order of primates, including galagos or bushbabies, lemurs, lorises, pottos, and tarsiers
