• Question: what animals are most similar to humans apart from monkeys?

    Asked by rebeccas to Charlotte, Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 13 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by alicegd.
    • Photo: Kevin Mahon

      Kevin Mahon answered on 13 Jun 2012:

      If by monkey you mean anything like a chimp, gorilla or orangutan, then I’d say any of the prosimians, such as the lemurs and tarsiers (google for a pic – very weird looking!)

      Prosimians are a branch of primates, the other being the Simians which includes Monkeys, Apes… and us!

    • Photo: Louise de Raad

      Louise de Raad answered on 13 Jun 2012:

      Taxonomy can be a bit confusing. Primates, include prosimians, monkeys, apes and humans. That’s why, people often speak of non-human primates, excluding their own species and thus talking about all “animal” primates. Non-human primates can be divided into 2 groups: anthropoids (monkeys and apes) and prosimians (for example lemurs, which you can see in Walt Disney’s movie “Dinosaur”). Prosimians have lower intelligence and they more closely resemble other mammal groups (they typically have whiskers and extended snouts, for example). The difference between monkeys and apes is this: apes (chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans and gibbons) do not have a tail and are much larger than monkeys.

      So yes, apart from monkeys and apes, prosimians are most closely related to humans – even though they look nothing like us!!

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