Question

 

There is often a lot of confusion regarding primate classification in common discourse. It is not unusual to hear people claim that a chimpanzee or a lemur is a monkey while at a zoo. While this error is understandable for the most part, it reflects a trend in oversimplification suggesting the terms “primate” and “Monkey” mean the same thing.

Such conversations are not only overheard at zoos but often bleed into pseudo-academic arguments. I recently read through a long thread arguing that humans are technically apes. The discussion was heated and confident but very much misguided.

There are two overarching problems with the statements referred to above. The first is simply a confusion about what the different primate groups are and which traits are associated with each. Some basic knowledge could set this inexperienced zoogoer straight. The second issue is more complex. The mildly informed (yet remarkably self-assured) individual arguing that we are apes might lack a firm grip on classification and the notion of ancestor-descendant relationships. In their case, it would be rather simple for someone to respond, “we are not apes, we are humans. It just so happens, however, that humans and apes are also Hominoids. Ape and Hominoid are not the same classification.”

The problem can be summed up as this. On the whole, people don’t understand the diversity of primates and those who do, have difficulty understanding how to classify individual species. The confusion lies in not understanding the traits associated with each group and not understanding how groups are related to each other. Concerning the latter point, it is difficult to understand how we can belong to the same group as many other primates (say Anthropoids) but also be different from other members of that group. This is the reason we can still hear people ask, “if I evolved from monkeys, then why are monkeys still here?”

For this question you will need to create a single response that addresses each issue.

You will need to include:

-A general opening about what primates are

-What the different broad groupings are and how they can be identified

-The difference between gradistic and cladistic classification

-The importance of ancestor/descendant relationships

-A discussion on how we are classified as humans and hominoids but not apes

-Why monkeys still exist if we evolved from them

Remember, you are writing this essay as a response to the statements above. Write this as if you were trying to teach them why they are mistaken. Please do not answer each bullet point as if it were its own question. They are simply the concepts that should be included in your response. Have some fun with this, as if you were making the argument directly to these individuals

Answer 1

Based upon the similarities and differences in the DNA of monkey and human m it is found that humans share a common ancestor with monkey which both evolved around 25 million years ago. Humans and chimpanzees show more similarity in DNA structure than monkey . It shows that around 6 mya humans and monkeys shared a common ancestors . As we know that evolution is a  process where one species can give rise to two or more species and these species can diverge or converge in order of evolution . And the decendent species are formed from the evolution of a species in a evolutionary families again and again across the generation . Primates are the order of mammals and they have characteristic brsin capacities and they uses hands and shows complex behaviour . The example of primates are apes ,humans, monkeys , chimpanzees , gorilla , lemur etc . In these mammals (have mammary gland in females , forward facing eyes , presence of nails ) we can observe high social interaction . Most of them possess 5 fingers in each hand and presence of opposable thumb . Feet in them is not found to be prehensile . Their sense organs are well developed compared to other mammals .

The two broadly divided suborders are for primates are -

Strepsirrhines include lemurs, galagos, and lorisids. These primates are widely distributed throughout Africa, Madagascar, India, and Southeast Asia. The word refers to wet nosed primates .

Haplorhines consist of "dry-nosed" primates ( 'simple-nosed') in the tarsier, monkey, and ape clades.

Last group is humans.

Simians comes under infraorder called Simiiformes and they are 'flat-nosed' refer to monkeys and apes. Simians which are again classified as Old World monkeys and a new world monkeys . The old monkeys belong to the infraorder of catarrhines . They are narrow nosed .The new world monkeys comes under the infraorder of platyrrhines . They have flat nose . The evolution history shows that simians migrated 40 million from Africa South America which later on gave rise to the five families of New World monkeys.

If we discuss about the Gradistic and clastis classification approach . The gradistic grouping of traits include - Gibbons, Siamangs group and orangutans gorilla and chimps group and humans group . These are classified on the basis of similarity and only closely related groups can be grouped in a gradistic classification .

Clastic classsification includes (gibbons, siamangs) (orangutan) (Gorillas, Chimps, Humans) the descendents of a common ancestor into a group, and does not consider morphological similarity . The groups are

1st group -gibbons , siamangs

2nd group - Orangutan

3rd group - Gorilla ,Chimps and Humans

And when we consider the ancestors and decendants we found that decendents have difference in their morphology and are the improved form of their ancestors . When the organisms originated from common ancestor move in different direction and the structures in them also develop with time . It is known as divergent evolution .

So from above it is clear that evolution bring changes and hence monkeys are not the ancestors of humans . They are evolved and they share a common ancestor with humans .