In hisSystema Naturae of 1758,Carl Linnaeus divided the OrderPrimates withinMammalia into fourgenera:Homo,Simia,Lemur, andVespertilio. HisVespertilio included allbats, and has since been moved from Primates toChiroptera.[1]Homo contained humans,Lemur contained four lemurs and acolugo, andSimia contained the other Primates. Linnaeus did not think thatHomo should form a distinct group fromSimia, classifying them separately mainly to avoid conflict with religious authorities.[2] If this is taken into account,Simia (includingHomo) would be roughly equivalent to the SuborderHaplorhini of the Primates (whileLemur would be roughly equivalent to the SuborderStrepsirrhini).
Homo,Lemur, andVespertilio have survived as generic names, butSimia has not. All the species have since been moved to other genera, and in 1929, theInternational Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled in itsOpinion 114 thatSimia be suppressed.[3] The genusSimias is distinct and remains valid, containing a single species, thepig-tailed langur (Simias concolor).
The original genusSimia came to include these species:
See also
editReferences
edit- ^"The Paleobiology Database". RetrievedAugust 26, 2006.
- ^"Letter, Carl Linnaeus to Johann Georg Gmelin. Uppsala, Sweden, 25 February 1747". Swedish Linnaean Society.Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved4 February 2009.
- ^International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1929)."Opinion 114. Under suspensionSimia,Simia satyrus andPithecus are suppressed".Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.73 (6):25–26.
- ^P. Hershkovitz:Living New World monkeys (Platyrrhini): with an introduction to Primates Univ. of Chicago Press 1977.ISBN 0-226-32788-4. S. 642ff