Monkeys vs Apes

Although Apes and Monkeys are primates, there is much dissimilarity between them. This difference is due to evolutionary ancestry and physical characteristics. The primates have forward-facing eyes with highly elastic arms, legs and fingers. This makes them easily live on trees. They can cling on tree branches and flexible limbs enhance agility. For accurate judgement of the distances between trees they have adapted forward facing eyes.

However, the primates are broadly put under two heads prosimians and the anthropoids. The former is a more primitive group and comprise of lemurs and similar animals. Their advanced species is Anthropoids, also called higher primates. Their haviour, size and geographical range varies. They have small ears, flat faces and highly developed brains.

Amongst the anthropoids, primates are sorted into monkeys, apes and hominids. One can easily distinguish a monkey from other anthropoids by the tail. Apes do not have a tail. Monkeys are much similar to other mammals. They bear a skeletal structure similar to ant quadruped including a cat or a dog.

Differences in Nutshell: Apes possess larger bodies and larger brains. However, their brains are primitive. Apes lack tails while monkeys have tails, whether long or short. Apes shoulder joint is rotary so they easily brachiate and hang from their arms. While monkeys can run along the tops of branches or on the ground. Apes have wider body with shorter and stiffer lumbar region. Apes are broad chested. Apes trust on vision and not on smell like other animals. Apes are capable of walking on 2 legs because of their upright posture.

Apes include gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans and gibbons. They are more intelligent. They are capable thinkers. Also they possess the ability to solve a problem and learn language.