Portal:Primates

The Primates Portal A primate is a member of the biological order Primates, the group that contains lemurs, the aye-aye, lorisids, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including great apes. With the exception of humans, who inhabit every continent on Earth, most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions of the Americas, Africa and Asia. Primates range in size from the 30-gram (1 oz) pygmy mouse lemur to the 200-kilogram (440 lb) mountain gorilla. According to fossil evidence, the primitive ancestors of primates may have existed in the late Cretaceous period around 65 mya (million years ago), and the oldest known primate is the Late Paleocene Plesiadapis, c. 55–58 mya. Molecular clock studies suggest that the primate branch may be even older, originating in the mid-Cretaceous period around 85 mya. Primates exhibit a wide range of characteristics. Some primates do not live primarily in trees, but all species possess adaptations for climbing trees. Locomotion techniques used include leaping from tree to tree, walking on two or four limbs, knuckle-walking, and swinging between branches of trees (known as brachiation). Primates are characterized by their large brains relative to other mammals. These features are most significant in monkeys and apes, and noticeably less so in lorises and lemurs. Many species are sexually dimorphic, which means males and females have different physical traits, including body mass, canine tooth size, and coloration. More about Primates... Selected article The World's 25 Most Endangered Primates is a list of highly endangered primate species selected and published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) Primate Specialist Group (PSG), the International Primatological Society (IPS), Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC), and Bristol Zoological Society (BZS). The IUCN/SSC PSG worked with Conservation International (CI) to start the list in 2000, but in 2002, during the 19th Congress of the International Primatological Society, primatologists reviewed and debated the list, resulting in the 2002–2004 revision and the endorsement of the IPS. The publication was a joint project between the three conservation organizations until the 2012–2014 list when BZS was added as a publisher. The 2018–2020 list was the first time Conservation International was not among the publishers, replaced instead by GWC. The list has been revised every two years following the biannual Congress of the IPS. Starting with the 2004–2006 report, the title changed to "Primates in Peril: The World's 25 Most Endangered Primates". That same year, the list began to provide information about each species, including their conservation status and the threats they face in the wild. The species text is written in collaboration with experts from the field, with 60 people contributing to the 2006–2008 report and 85 people contributing to the 2008–2010 report. The 2004–2006 and 2006–2008 reports were published in the IUCN/SSC PSG journal Primate Conservation,, since then they have been published as independent publications. The 25 species on the 2018–2020 list are distributed between 32 countries. The country with the most species on the list is Madagascar with five species, Indonesia, Brazil, Ghana, and Cote d'Ivoire each have three. The list is broken into four distinct regions: the island of Madagascar, the continent of Africa, the continent of Asia including the islands of Indonesia, and the Neotropics (Central and South America). (Full article...) Selected picture The brown spider monkey, Ateles hybridus, is a species of spider monkey, a type of New World monkey, from South America. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela. Like all spider monkeys, it has very long, spindly limbs and a lengthy prehensile tail which can almost be called a fifth limb. The tail is made up of highly flexible, hairless tips with skin grooves which improves grip on tree branches and is adapted to its strictly arboreal lifestyle. It is currently critically endangered, with few examples of them remaining in the wild. Categories Select [►] to view subcategories Primates Lists of primates Primates by location Primate anatomy Primate behavior Primate conservation Evolution of primates Primate health Primates and humans Monkeys Prehistoric primates Primate taxa Primate stubs Selected species Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)|Vulnerable The pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) is a species of slow loris found east of the Mekong River in Vietnam, Laos, eastern Cambodia, and China. It occurs in a variety of forest habitats, including tropical dry forests, semi-evergreen, and evergreen forests. The animal is nocturnal and arboreal, crawling along branches using slow movements in search of prey. It lives together in small groups usually with one or two offspring. An adult can grow to around 19 to 23 cm (7.5 to 9.1 in) long and has a very short tail. It weighs about 450 g (1.0 lb). Its diet consists of fruits, insects, small fauna, tree sap, and floral nectar. The animal has a toxic bite. The pygmy slow loris mates once every 12–18 months and has one or two offspring after an average gestation period of six months. Females reach sexual maturity by 16 months, while males reach maturity by about 18 months. The pygmy slow loris is seasonally fertile during the months of July and August. The habitat of the pygmy slow loris in Vietnam was greatly reduced due to extensive burning, clearing, and defoliating of forests during the Vietnam War. Extensive hunting for traditional medicines is currently putting severe pressure on Cambodian populations. The pygmy slow loris is seriously threatened by hunting, trade, and habitat destruction; consequently, it is listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and in 2006 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified it as "Vulnerable". Did you know? ... that both Margot Marsh's mouse lemur and Arnhold's mouse lemur are separated from their closest relatives by species barriers? ... that the gestation period of the ring-tailed lemur is approximately 146 days? ... that the endangered golden lion tamarin has a long, but not prehensile, tail? ... that until December 2008, the red lemur and the red-fronted lemur (pictured) were considered the same species? ... that the gray-handed night monkey is nocturnal and monogamous? ... that Corcovado National Park is the only national park in which all of Costa Rica's four native monkey species can be found? Primate lists List of lemur species List of Central American monkey species List of Costa Rican monkey species List of Panamanian monkey species List of Neanderthal sites List of apes List of fictional apes List of fictional monkeys List of human evolution fossils List of monkeys List of placental mammals in Order Primates WikiProjects WikiProject Science WikiProject Biology WikiProject Tree of Life WikiProject Animals WikiProject Mammals Wikiproject Primates Topics Humans  Human body • Human evolution • Human ecology • Human development Strepsirrhines  Lemur • Lorisoidea • Adapiformes • List of lemur species Haplorhines  Tarsier • Omomyidae • Monkey • Old World monkey • New World monkey • Ape Related portals Mammals Science History of Science Biology Ecology Evolutionary biology Things to do Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : Article requests Cleanup : Ebu Gogo, Primate basal ganglia system, More Copyedit : Homo erectus, Multiregional origin of modern humans Expand : Ah Meng, Multiregional origin of modern humans, More Merge : Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium into Chimpanzee genome project Stubs : Giant Aye-aye, Godinotia, Equatorial Saki, Furry-eared Dwarf Lemur, More... 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