Apes:
Apes are Old World anthropoid mammals, more specifically a clade of tailless catarrhine primates, belonging to the biological superfamily Hominoidea. The apes are native to Africa and South-east Asia. Apes are the largest primates and the orangutan, an ape, is the largest living arboreal animal. Hominoids are traditionally forest dwellers, although chimpanzees may range into savanna, and the extinct australopithecines were likely also savanna inhabitants, inferred from their morphology. Humans inhabit almost every terrestrial habitat.
The "lesser apes" are the gibbon family, Hylobatidae with sixteen medium-sized species. Their major differentiating characteristic is their long arms, which they use to brachiate through the trees. As an evolutionary adaptation to this arboreal lifestyle, their wrists are ball and socket joints. A siamang is an example of the gibbon family. Also when you squeeze apes there eyes pop out :). It is the biggest of that family.
The "great apes" were formerly treated as the family Pongidae. As noted above, this definition makes the Pongidae paraphyletic, and does not show that orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and humans are all more closely related to one another than any of these four groups are to gibbons. Further, current evidence implies that humans share a common extinct ancestor with the chimpanzee line, from which we separated more recently than the gorilla line.
The superfamily Hominoidea falls within Catarrhini, which also includes the Old World monkeys of Africa and Eurasia. Within this group, both families (Hylobatidae and Hominidae) can be distinguished from Old World monkeys by the number of cusps on their molars(hominoids have five—the "Y-5" molar pattern, Old World monkeys have only four in a bilophodont pattern). Hominoids have more mobile shoulder joints and arms due to the dorsal position of the scapula, broad ribcages that are flatter front-to-back, and a shorter, less mobile spine compared to Old World monkeys, with caudal (tail) vertebrae greatly reduced, resulting in complete tail loss in living species. These are all anatomical adaptations to vertical hanging and swinging locomotion (brachiation), as well as better balance in a bipedalpose. However, there are also primates in other families that lack tails, and at least one (the pig-tailed langur) that has been known to walk significant distances bipedally. The front skull is characterised by its sinuses, fusion of the frontal bone and post-orbital constriction.
Orangutans are the largest and the rarest of the Asian apes. Males often grow to 175-200 pounds (80-90 kg.) and 4½ feet (1.4 m.) tall. At this size, they are usually too large to cross from one tree to another by the branches and must go down to the ground and walk quadrupedally between them. There is marked sexual dimorphism among the orangutans. Males have huge fleshy pads framing the upper part of their faces. In addition, females weigh only about half as much as the males (73-99 lbs or 33-45 kg.). Being lighter, females and juveniles often stay in the trees and use a leaning form of brachiation--they carefully shift their body weight to bend a supporting branch and then grab the next one before the first one breaks.
Orangutans have largely hairless faces, but the rest of their bodies are covered with long reddish brown hair. The body hair of adult males becomes so long and intertwined that it appears almost to be in unkempt "dreadlocks"
The largest apes are the gorillas of Africa. Adult males are 5½- 6 feet (1.7-1.8 m.) tall and have 9-10 foot (2.7-3.0 m.) arm spans. They have massive heads with heavy, thick muscles on top that are used to close crushing jaws. Their bodies are stout and very muscular.Like humans, gorillas are terrestrial animals. They are quadrupedal knuckle walkers. That is, they walk on the soles of their feet but not on the palms of their hands. They bend their fingers and support the upper end of their bodies with their knuckles instead of their open palms.
They are shy, peaceful vegetarians who usually flee from humans and rarely fight even among themselves. They live in family groups consisting of a dominant adult male with several adult female mates and their children. These groups grow over time to 20 or more individuals. Subadult males are tolerated in the family as long as they are not actively competing with the dominant male for mates. Gorillas are highly sexually dimorphic. Adult males average about 350 pounds (160 kg.) and reach 400 pounds (181 kg.) in the wild, while most adult females are only about 155 pounds (70 kg.) and much less muscular.
There are three varieties, or subspecies, of gorillas. The rare mountain gorilla variety lives at high altitude in sparse woodlands in the mountains of Central Africa. As of 2011, there were only 786 of them still alive. The more numerous lowland gorilla varieties live in the dense forests of West Africa. Most zoo gorillas are of the lowland varieties.
Although there had been earlier studies, the scientific investigation of behavior and cognition in non-human members of the superfamily Hominoidea expanded enormously during the latter half of the twentieth century. Major studies of behavior in the field were completed on the three better-known "great apes", for example by Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas. These studies have shown that in their natural environments, the non-human hominoids show sharply varying social structure: gibbons are monogamous, territorial pair-bonders, orangutans are solitary, gorillas live in small troops with a single adult male leader, while chimpanzees live in larger troops with bonobos exhibiting promiscuous sexual behavior Their diets also vary; gorillas are foliovores while the others are all primarily frugivores, although the common chimpanzee does some hunting for meat. Foraging behavior is correspondingly variable.
All the non-human hominoids are generally thought of as highly intelligent, and scientific study has broadly confirmed that they perform outstandingly well on a wide range of cognitive tests – though there is relatively little data on gibbon cognition. The early studies by Wolfgang Köhler demonstrated exceptional problem-solving abilities in chimpanzees, which Köhler attributed to insight. The use of tools has been repeatedly demonstrated; more recently, the manufacture of tools has been documented, both in the wild and in laboratory tests. Imitation is much more easily demonstrated in "great apes" than in other primate species. Almost all the studies in animal language acquisition have been done with "great apes", and though there is continuing dispute as to whether they demonstrate real language abilities, there is no doubt that they involve significant feats of learning. Chimpanzees in different parts of Africa have developed tools that are used in food acquisition, demonstrating a form of animal culture.
Apes do not possess a tail, unlike most monkeys. Monkeys are more likely to be in trees and use their tails for balance. Apes are considerably larger than monkeys, with the exception of gibbons, which are smaller than some monkeys. Apes are considered to be more intelligent than monkeys, which are considered to have more primitive brains. Unlike female monkeys which go through the estrous cycle, great apes, including humans, go through a menstrual cycle.
Sources:
O'Neil, Dennis. "The Primates: Apes." The Primates: Apes. 1998. 2013 <http://anthro.palomar.edu/primate/prim_7.htm>.
"Ape." Wikipedia. 06 May 2013. Wikimedia Foundation. May 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ape>.
The "lesser apes" are the gibbon family, Hylobatidae with sixteen medium-sized species. Their major differentiating characteristic is their long arms, which they use to brachiate through the trees. As an evolutionary adaptation to this arboreal lifestyle, their wrists are ball and socket joints. A siamang is an example of the gibbon family. Also when you squeeze apes there eyes pop out :). It is the biggest of that family.
The "great apes" were formerly treated as the family Pongidae. As noted above, this definition makes the Pongidae paraphyletic, and does not show that orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and humans are all more closely related to one another than any of these four groups are to gibbons. Further, current evidence implies that humans share a common extinct ancestor with the chimpanzee line, from which we separated more recently than the gorilla line.
The superfamily Hominoidea falls within Catarrhini, which also includes the Old World monkeys of Africa and Eurasia. Within this group, both families (Hylobatidae and Hominidae) can be distinguished from Old World monkeys by the number of cusps on their molars(hominoids have five—the "Y-5" molar pattern, Old World monkeys have only four in a bilophodont pattern). Hominoids have more mobile shoulder joints and arms due to the dorsal position of the scapula, broad ribcages that are flatter front-to-back, and a shorter, less mobile spine compared to Old World monkeys, with caudal (tail) vertebrae greatly reduced, resulting in complete tail loss in living species. These are all anatomical adaptations to vertical hanging and swinging locomotion (brachiation), as well as better balance in a bipedalpose. However, there are also primates in other families that lack tails, and at least one (the pig-tailed langur) that has been known to walk significant distances bipedally. The front skull is characterised by its sinuses, fusion of the frontal bone and post-orbital constriction.
Orangutans are the largest and the rarest of the Asian apes. Males often grow to 175-200 pounds (80-90 kg.) and 4½ feet (1.4 m.) tall. At this size, they are usually too large to cross from one tree to another by the branches and must go down to the ground and walk quadrupedally between them. There is marked sexual dimorphism among the orangutans. Males have huge fleshy pads framing the upper part of their faces. In addition, females weigh only about half as much as the males (73-99 lbs or 33-45 kg.). Being lighter, females and juveniles often stay in the trees and use a leaning form of brachiation--they carefully shift their body weight to bend a supporting branch and then grab the next one before the first one breaks.
Orangutans have largely hairless faces, but the rest of their bodies are covered with long reddish brown hair. The body hair of adult males becomes so long and intertwined that it appears almost to be in unkempt "dreadlocks"
The largest apes are the gorillas of Africa. Adult males are 5½- 6 feet (1.7-1.8 m.) tall and have 9-10 foot (2.7-3.0 m.) arm spans. They have massive heads with heavy, thick muscles on top that are used to close crushing jaws. Their bodies are stout and very muscular.Like humans, gorillas are terrestrial animals. They are quadrupedal knuckle walkers. That is, they walk on the soles of their feet but not on the palms of their hands. They bend their fingers and support the upper end of their bodies with their knuckles instead of their open palms.
They are shy, peaceful vegetarians who usually flee from humans and rarely fight even among themselves. They live in family groups consisting of a dominant adult male with several adult female mates and their children. These groups grow over time to 20 or more individuals. Subadult males are tolerated in the family as long as they are not actively competing with the dominant male for mates. Gorillas are highly sexually dimorphic. Adult males average about 350 pounds (160 kg.) and reach 400 pounds (181 kg.) in the wild, while most adult females are only about 155 pounds (70 kg.) and much less muscular.
There are three varieties, or subspecies, of gorillas. The rare mountain gorilla variety lives at high altitude in sparse woodlands in the mountains of Central Africa. As of 2011, there were only 786 of them still alive. The more numerous lowland gorilla varieties live in the dense forests of West Africa. Most zoo gorillas are of the lowland varieties.
Although there had been earlier studies, the scientific investigation of behavior and cognition in non-human members of the superfamily Hominoidea expanded enormously during the latter half of the twentieth century. Major studies of behavior in the field were completed on the three better-known "great apes", for example by Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas. These studies have shown that in their natural environments, the non-human hominoids show sharply varying social structure: gibbons are monogamous, territorial pair-bonders, orangutans are solitary, gorillas live in small troops with a single adult male leader, while chimpanzees live in larger troops with bonobos exhibiting promiscuous sexual behavior Their diets also vary; gorillas are foliovores while the others are all primarily frugivores, although the common chimpanzee does some hunting for meat. Foraging behavior is correspondingly variable.
All the non-human hominoids are generally thought of as highly intelligent, and scientific study has broadly confirmed that they perform outstandingly well on a wide range of cognitive tests – though there is relatively little data on gibbon cognition. The early studies by Wolfgang Köhler demonstrated exceptional problem-solving abilities in chimpanzees, which Köhler attributed to insight. The use of tools has been repeatedly demonstrated; more recently, the manufacture of tools has been documented, both in the wild and in laboratory tests. Imitation is much more easily demonstrated in "great apes" than in other primate species. Almost all the studies in animal language acquisition have been done with "great apes", and though there is continuing dispute as to whether they demonstrate real language abilities, there is no doubt that they involve significant feats of learning. Chimpanzees in different parts of Africa have developed tools that are used in food acquisition, demonstrating a form of animal culture.
Apes do not possess a tail, unlike most monkeys. Monkeys are more likely to be in trees and use their tails for balance. Apes are considerably larger than monkeys, with the exception of gibbons, which are smaller than some monkeys. Apes are considered to be more intelligent than monkeys, which are considered to have more primitive brains. Unlike female monkeys which go through the estrous cycle, great apes, including humans, go through a menstrual cycle.
Sources:
O'Neil, Dennis. "The Primates: Apes." The Primates: Apes. 1998. 2013 <http://anthro.palomar.edu/primate/prim_7.htm>.
"Ape." Wikipedia. 06 May 2013. Wikimedia Foundation. May 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ape>.