| The Mesa, Arizona Police Department is considering a proposal to train a capuchin monkey. The Department if looking into the possibility of obtaining a huge grant of $100,000 from the federal government to launch the pilot program to train one monkey ... one monkey. Those people who support the expensive program state that the trained monkey could be used to deal with hostage situations and heavily armed criminals, saving human lives in the process..
According to the latest anthropological data and the universally accepted theory about the origin of species, all monkeys of the Old World (narrow-nosed monkeys) are divided in two big super-families: Cercopithecidea and anthropoids. The set of anatomic features distinguished the first super-family from the second. The huge body, absence of a tail, cheek pouches and sciatic pads (they are present in gibbons but are small) are characteristic for anthropoids.
Essentially an excellent way of moving on trees is characteristic to anthropoids: instead of running on branches on all four limbs, they move mainly on their hands under the branches. Such a way of movement is called brachiation. The adaptation towards brachiation lead to a number of anatomic changes: more flexible and longer arms, mobile shoulder joints and a flattened rib cage in anterior posterior.
All humanoids have a similar structure of teeth and a bigger brain, in comparison with Cercopithecidea. Also, their brain is more complex with highly developed areas, which are responsible for the movements of arms, the tongue and visual organs.
Anthropoids first appeared in the Old World by the end of the Oligocene - around 30 million years ago. Propliopithecine – the primitive gibbon monkeys from rainforests of Faiyum (Egypt), which have given origin to the propliopithus, gibbons and driopithecus, are the most popular amongst them. The sharp increase in numbers and types of anthropoids took place in Miocene age. It was the peak era for Driopithecus and other hominids, which began approximately 20 - 16 million years ago and there was a migration from Africa across to Europe and Asia. Sivapithecus - ancestors of orang-utans, the linage of which separated around 16-13 million years ago were also found amongst Asian hominids. According to molecular biology, the separation of the chimpanzee and gorilla from the common human body occurred most likely 8 - 6 million years ago.
Traditionally, three families evolved out of the anthropoids: gibbons, pongidaes (orangutans, gorillas and chimpanzees) and hominids (man and his ancestors). However, modern biochemical research reveals that this division is baseless since the ancestry of man and pongidaes is very close. Therefore, the family pongidaes is now included in the hominid family under the subfamily Ponginae and some authors also include gibbons under the family of hominids.
Monkeys, the popular name of a higher suborder or humanoids (ie not related to "simian" - lemurs and tarsiers) primates except for the family of hominids (humans). As the word "primate" suggests the first or best, the group stands out before the other animals due to the development of the brain's centre, which controls the thinking in humans. All special senses such as vision, hearing, smell and physical mobility of many other types are developed at a par with monkeys and even better sometimes.
Monkeys are found in large numbers and of different types in tropical and subtropical areas, especially in the plains and areas, close to water bodies. Some kinds inhabit the high altitudes of mountain regions at the border of forest belt and other species - in comfortably cool climatic conditions. Monkeys of various systematic groups can differ sharply according to external appearance from each other. For example, the length of the timid dwarf tamarin of the Brazilian forests is only 15 cm where as the largest monkey (not considered as humanoid) - Baboons - their size and ferocious appearance is similar to mastiffs.
Despite the huge diversity in external appearance, all monkeys have sufficiently common features, combining them all into one natural taxon, which is further divided into two major sub-groups. The section of platyrrhine monkeys or New World (Platyrrhina) monkeys include one super-family Ceboidea, which combine night monkeys, titi monkeys, short-tailed saki, common saki monkeys or saki, howler monkeys, capuchins, Squirrel monkeys, spider monkeys, woolly monkeys and marmoset monkeys. The section of catarrhini monkeys or Old World monkeys (Catarrhina) is divided into two super families - humanoid, which is not covered in this article and dog like or lower catarrhini (Cercopithecoidae), which include macaque monkeys, lion-tailed macaque, marmosets, baboons, leaf monkeys, langurs, colobus, drills and mandrills and Mangabeys and long-nosed monkeys. The long and tenacious (prehensile) tails are characteristic to New World monkeys. Their nostrils are divided by a wide nasal septum and the bottom of the acoustic meatus does not ossify in the skull. The tail, if present in Old World monkeys, is not tenacious and the nasal septum is narrow and the acoustic meatus is fully surrounded by bone. Ischial pads are peculiar in the majority of monkeys - thickened skin sections on the buttocks. They have only 32 teeth whereas New World monkeys have 36. |
