Monkeys

As per the Oxford Dictionary, Monkey is “a small to medium-sized primate typically having a long tail and living in trees in tropical countries”. The word traces its origin from the 1580's German version of the Big Virginia fable. The fable characterizes Moneke as the son of Martin the Ape. As most of the word got originated from Italian versions, the word Moneke may also seem to have been derived from the Italian monna which means "a female ape".

As a group of sheep is called flock, group of monkeys can be called a mission or a tribe. Scientists have discovered approx. 264 known surviving species of monkeys all around the world. There are two divisions in the monkeys. So, a monkey can be a member of the either the New World monkeys group or Old World monkeys.

While the New World monkeys are assorted within the parvorder Platyrrhini, the Old World monkeys (superfamily Cercopithecoidea) are classes under parvorder Catarrhini group. The Old World Monkeys are more related to the apes.

The Pygmy Marmoset is 14-16 cm (5-6 inch) long (including tail) and 120-140 g (4-5 oz) in weight. The male Mandrill is almost 1 metre (3 ft) long and weighs 35 kg (75 lb). The character traits of monkeys differ as per their habitats. Some monkeys are arboreal while others prefer to live on the savannah. Alike their abode, their diets also differ. However, the common ingredients of Monkeys diet include leaves, flowers, spiders, fruit, seeds, nuts, insects, eggs and small animals.

The New World monkeys possess grasping tails while Old World monkeys have non-prehensile tails (sometimes no tail at all). The vision power of some monkeys is trichromatic while others may be dichromatic or monochromatic. The New World Monkeys seem to have got shrank in size as compared to Old World Monkeys. To know more about monkeys we should study them individually.