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Article: Primate
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Primate
The order Primates includes prosimians, monkeys, and apes. Primates are well studied, to a large extent because people are primates. (Humans are apes, within the superfamily Hominoidea.) There are some 240 species of primates alive today, ranging across South America, Africa, and Asia. Since nearly all primates are primarily arboreal (they live in trees), their geographic distribution is largely confined to forest or woodland and to warm regions where all of the trees do not lose their leaves and fruits at the same time.
Traditionally primates are divided into two groups: the Prosimians (lemurs of Madagascar and Africa, lorises of Asia, and tarsiers of Asia) and the Anthropoidea ...