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:For the ecclesiastical use of this term, see primate (religion)
A primate is any member of the biological order Primates, the group that contains all lemurs, monkeys, and apes, including humans. The English singular primate is a back-formation from the Latin name Primates, which itself was the plural of the Latin primas ("one of the first, excellent, noble").
All primates have five fingers (pentadactyly), a generalized dental pattern, and a primitive (unspecialized) body plan. Another distinguishing feature of primates is fingernails. Opposing thumbs are also a characteristic primate feature, but are not limited to this order; opossums, for example, also have opposing thumbs. In primates, the combination of opposing thumbs, short fingernails (rather than claws) and long, inward-closing fingerFor the network protocol, see finger protocol . For the hand gesture, see the finger . Fingers of the human left hand The finger is any of the digits of the hand in humans and other species such as the great apes. The grace of the fingers is not sacrifices is a relic of the ancestral practice of brachiatingBrachiation (to brachiate) means moving about by swinging from one arm to another, for example through a tree, using branches as holds. Many primates use this method to move through forest quickly. through trees. Forward-facing color binocular visionBinocular vision (also referred to as stereoscopic vision is a type of visual system common in many kinds of animals where both the eyes produce only a single image in the brain. It may be contrasted with monocular vision, where the information from each was also useful for the brachiating ancestors of humans, particularly for finding and collecting food. All primates, even those that lack the features typical of other primates (like lorisLoris tardigradus ''Loris lydekkerianus ''Nycticebus coucang ''Nycticebus bengalensis ''Nycticebus pygmaeus Loris is the genus for the Slender lorises as well as the common name for them and for the genus Nycticebus . Both Loris and Nycticebus are in thees), share eye orbit characteristics that distinguish them from other taxonomic orders.
As the table below illustrates, in many primate species, the males are larger than the females. However this picture is incomplete. All but one of these are Old WorldThe Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans before the voyages of Christopher Columbus: Europe, Asia, and Africa. The term is in distinction for the New World, meaning the Americas. Although the interiors of Asia and Africa were not species, and in this group the mating systemIn sociobiology and behavioural ecology, the term mating system is used to describe the ways in which animal societies are structured in relation to sexual behaviour. The mating system specifies what males mate with what females under what circumstances. is usually polygynousThe term polygyny (Greek: poly many, gynaika woman) is used in related ways in social anthropology and sociobiology. Definitions In social anthropology, polygyny is a marital practice in which a man has more than one wife simultaneously. This is the usual; sexual dimorphism is expected with this kind of social structure. As the table shows, sexual dimorphism is much less in the marmosets ( New World) than in the other species listed, and this is characteristic of New World monkeys in comparison with the Old World monkeys and apes. This is because the New World monkeys generally form pair bonds.
