parent_taxon tremacebus
___MASK81___ monkeys of the genus Ateles are New World monkeys in the subfamily Atelinae , family ___MASK66___ . Like other atelines , they are found in tropical forests of Central and South America , from southern Mexico to Brazil . The genus contains seven species , all of which are under threat ; the black - headed spider monkey , and brown spider monkey are critically endangered . The ___MASK86___ ( also called Arctopitheci or Hapalidae ) are a family of New World monkeys , including marmosets and tamarins . At times , this group of animals has been regarded as a subfamily , called Callitrichinae , of the family ___MASK25___ . The ___MASK25___ are one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised . It includes the capuchin monkeys and squirrel monkeys . These species are found throughout tropical and subtropical South and Central America . Tremacebus harringtoni is an extinct species of New World monkey from the Miocene . Tremacebus was about 1 metre ( 3 . 3 ft ) in length , and would have resembled a modern night monkey , to which it may have been related . However , its eyes appear to have been smaller than the modern species , CT scans of the cranium suggest a relatively small olfactory bulb and poor sense of smell , compared with night monkeys . These features suggest that it may not have been nocturnal . Only a few fossils have been found , including a skull from Patagonia . The ___MASK66___ are one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised . It was formerly included in the family Cebidae . Atelids are generally larger monkeys ; the family includes the howler , spider , woolly , and woolly spider monkeys ( the latter being the largest of the New World monkeys ). They are found throughout the forested regions of Central and South America , from Mexico to northern Argentina . A primate is a ___MASK34___ of the order Primates ( Latin : " prime , first rank "). In taxonomy , primates include two distinct lineages , strepsirrhines and haplorhines . Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests ; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three - dimensional environment . Most primate species remain at least partly arboreal . ___MASK44___ is one of the two subdivisions of the simians , the other being the plathyrrhine ( New World monkeys ). The ___MASK44___ contains the Old World monkeys and the apes ; the latter of which are in turn further divided into the lesser apes or gibbons and the great apes , consisting of the orangutans , gorillas , chimpanzees , and humans . The Catarrhine are all native to Africa and Asia . Members of this parvorder are called catarrhines . Apes ( ___MASK38___ ) are a branch of Old World tailless anthropoid ___MASK29___ native to Africa and Southeast Asia . They are the sister group of Old World monkeys , together forming the catarrhine clade . They are distinguished from other ___MASK29___ by a wider degree of freedom of motion at the shoulder joint as evolved by the influence of brachiation . There are two extant branches of the superfamily ___MASK38___ : the gibbons , or lesser apes ; and the hominids , or great apes . A prehensile tail is the tail of an ___MASK57___ that has adapted to be able to grasp or hold objects . Fully prehensile tails can be used to hold and manipulate objects , and in particular to aid arboreal creatures in finding and eating food in the trees . If the tail cannot be used for this it is considered only partially prehensile - such tails are often used to anchor an ___MASK57___ ' s body to dangle from a branch , or as an aid for climbing . The term " prehensile " means " able to grasp " ( from the Latin " prehendere ", to take hold of , to grasp ). Africa is the world ' s second - largest and second - most - populous continent . At about 30 . 3 million km² ( 11 . 7 million square miles ) including adjacent islands , it covers 6 % of Earth ' s total surface ___MASK67___ and 20 . 4 % of its total land ___MASK67___ . With 1 . 1 billion people as of 2013 , it accounts for about 15 % of the world ' s human population . The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north , both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast , the Indian Ocean to the southeast , and the Atlantic Ocean to the west . The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos . It contains 54 fully recognized sovereign states ( countries ), nine territories and two " de facto " independent states with limited or no recognition . New World monkeys are the five families of ___MASK29___ that are found in Central and South America and portions of Mexico : ___MASK86___ , ___MASK25___ , ___MASK17___ , Pitheciidae , and ___MASK66___ . The five families are ranked together as the Platyrrhini parvorder and the Ceboidea superfamily , which are essentially synonymous since Ceboidea is the only living platyrrhine superfamily . Platyrhini means flat - nosed , and their noses are flatter than those of other simians , with sideways - facing nostrils . Monkeys in the family ___MASK66___ , such as the spider monkey , are the only ___MASK29___ to have prehensile tails . New World monkeys ' closest relatives are the other simians , the Catarrhini (" down - nosed ," comprising Old World monkeys and apes ). New World monkeys descend from African simians that colonized South America , a line that split off about 40 million years ago . The Old World monkeys or Cercopithecidae are a family of ___MASK29___ , the only family in the superfamily ___MASK3___ in the clade ( or parvorder ) of Catarrhini . Monkeys are haplorhine (" dry - nosed ") ___MASK29___ , a group generally possessing tails and consisting of about 260 known living species . There are two distinct lineages of monkeys : New World Monkeys and catarrhines . Apes emerged within the catarrhines with the Old World monkeys as a sister group , so cladistically they are monkeys as well . However , traditionally apes are not considered monkeys , rendering this grouping paraphyletic . The equivalent monophyletic clade are the simians . Many monkey species are tree - dwelling ( arboreal ), although there are species that live primarily on the ground , such as baboons . Most species are also active during the day ( diurnal ). Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent , particularly Old World monkeys . The ___MASK14___ are one of the five families of New World monkeys now recognised . Formerly , they were included in the family ___MASK66___ . The family includes the titis , saki monkeys and uakaris . Most species are native to the Amazonia region of Brazil , with some being found from Colombia in the north to Bolivia in the south .