prosimian

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The Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) is a prosimian of the family Lemuridae.

Prosimians are suborders and families of mammals that are defined by being primates that are not monkeys or apes. They include, among others, lemurs, the Aye-aye, bushbabies, and tarsiers. They are considered to have characteristics that are more primitive than those of monkeys and apes. Prosimians are the only primates native to Madagascar, and are also found in Africa and Asia. With the exception of the tarsiers, all extant prosimians are in the suborder Strepsirrhini. Because tarsiers, as well as some extinct prosimians, share a more recent common ancestor with monkeys and apes than with other prosimians, prosimians belong to a paraphyletic group and not a clade.

The adapids are an extinct grouping that were most certainly prosimians and closely related to the strepsirhines. The omomyids are another extinct group of prosimians but they are believed to be haplorrhines, closely related to the tarsiers, but an outgroup to the rest of the haplorrhines.

Classification

The prosimians were once considered a suborder of the Primate order (suborder Prosimii - Gr. pro, before, + simia, ape). They have been shown, however, to be paraphyletic - that is, their most recent common ancestor was a prosimian but it has some non-prosimian descendents (i.e. monkeys and apes). This relationship is shown by the ranks (prosimians in bold) in the list below of the current Primate classification between the order and family level. The classification is used on a more behavioural term nowadays, due to the lack of a unique last common ancestor.

• Order Primates
  • Suborder Strepsirrhini: non-tarsier prosimians
    • Infraorder Lemuriformes
      • Family Cheirogaleidae: dwarf lemurs and mouse-lemurs
      • Family Daubentoniidae: Aye-aye
      • Family Lemuridae: lemurs
      • Family Lepilemuridae: sportive lemurs
      • Family Indriidae: woolly lemurs and allies
    • Infraorder Lorisiformes
      • Family Lorisidae: lorises, pottos and allies
      • Family Galagidae: galagos
  • Suborder Haplorrhini: tarsiers, monkeys and apes
    • Infraorder Tarsiiformes
      • Family Tarsiidae: tarsiers
    • Infraorder Simiiformes
      • Parvorder Platyrrhini: New World monkeys (5 families)
      • Parvorder Catarrhini: humans and other Old World primates (3 families)

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