![]() ![]() The term hominins is also due to Gray (1824), intended as including the human lineage (see also Hominidae#Terminology, Human taxonomy). Both terms were introduced by Gray (1825). The taxonomic term hominoid is derived from, and intended as encompassing, the hominids, the family of great apes. So "ape"-not to be confused with "great ape"-now becomes another word for hominoid including humans. Biologists have traditionally used the term "ape" to mean a member of the superfamily Hominoidea other than humans, but more recently to mean all members of Hominoidea. "Ape" has been used as a synonym for "monkey" or for naming any primate with a human-like appearance, particularly those without a tail. Some, or recently all, hominoids are also called "apes", but the term is used broadly and has several different senses within both popular and scientific settings. Thus, the term "ape" obtained two different meanings, as shown in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica entry: it could be used as a synonym for "monkey" and it could denote the tailless human-like primate in particular. Later, after the term " monkey" had been introduced into English, "ape" was specialized to refer to a tailless (therefore exceptionally human-like) primate. Its earliest meaning was generally of any non-human anthropoid primate, as is still the case for its cognates in other Germanic languages. The term has a history of rather imprecise usage-and of comedic or punning usage in the vernacular. "Ape", from Old English apa, is a word of uncertain origin. Currently considered to be the greatest threat to survival of African apes, Ebola infection is responsible for the death of at least one third of all gorillas and chimpanzees since 1990. The great apes of Africa are also facing threat from the Ebola virus. The chief threat to most of the endangered species is loss of tropical rainforest habitat, though some populations are further imperiled by hunting for bushmeat. ![]() The remaining species of gibbon, the bonobo, and all four species of chimpanzees are endangered. Five gibbon species are critically endangered, as are all species of orangutan and gorilla. The eastern hoolock gibbon is the least threatened, only being vulnerable to extinction. Humans are by far the most numerous of the hominoid species, in fact outnumbering all other primates by a factor of several thousand to one.Īll non-human hominoids are rare and threatened with extinction. Human diets are sometimes substantially different from that of other hominoids due in part to the development of technology and a wide range of habitation. Apes eat a variety of plant and animal foods, with the majority of food being plant foods, which can include fruits, leaves, stalks, roots and seeds, including nuts and grass seeds. Įxcept for gorillas and humans, hominoids are agile climbers of trees. The family Hominidae ( hominids), the great apes, include four genera comprising three extant species of orangutans and their subspecies, two extant species of gorillas and their subspecies, two extant species of panins ( bonobos and chimpanzees) and their subspecies, and humans in a single extant subspecies.They have lighter bodies and smaller social groups than great apes. They are highly arboreal and bipedal on the ground. The family Hylobatidae, the lesser apes, include four genera and a total of 20 species of gibbon, including the lar gibbon and the siamang, all native to Asia.There are two extant branches of the superfamily Hominoidea: the gibbons, or lesser apes and the hominids, or great apes. In traditional and non-scientific use, the term "ape" can include tailless primates taxonomically considered Cercopithecidae (such as the Barbary ape and black ape), and is thus not equivalent to the scientific taxon Hominoidea. ![]() Apes do not have tails due to a mutation of the TBXT gene. ə/) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory), which together with its sister group Cercopithecidae form the catarrhine clade, cladistically making them monkeys. ![]() Apes (collectively Hominoidea / h ɒ m ɪ ˈ n ɔɪ d i. ![]()
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