monkey v. ape

White-faced saki monkey. Image courtesy of Pagog! The order of primates can be divided into prosimians, monkeys, and apes. Prosimians, which include lemurs, were the earliest group to evolve. There are hundreds of species of monkeys, which are medium sized, tailed primates. Apes are large, tailless, Old World primates belonging to the superfamily Hominoidea. This group can be further subdivided into lesser apes, such as gibbons and siamangs, and great apes, such as humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas.

Feature	Monkeys	Apes
Range	Africa, Asia, and South America	Africa and Asia (Humans occupy every continent.)
Examples	langur snub nosed monkey patas monkey drill saki golden lion tamarin	gibbon bonobo chimpanzee gorilla human orangutan
Relative size	Small	Large
Tail	Yes	No
Arms	Shorter than or same length as legs with limited shoulder movement	Longer than legs with full shoulder rotation
Chest	Narrow	Broad
Habitat	Arboreal or semiterrestrial	Terrestrial
Diet	Fruit, foliage, insects	Fruit, grass, small invertebrates
Diversity	>200 species	<30 species
Relative intelligence	Low	High
Locomotion	Quadupedal	Bipedal or quadrupedal, brachiating (swinging from branches by arms)
Posture	Less upright	More upright
Lifespan	Up to 30 years	Up to 60 years (more for humans)

 

As it happens, monkeys are paraphyletic, which means that they comprise a few distantly related groups. These are the Old World monkeys and the New World Monkeys. Old World monkeys are actually more closely related to apes than to New World monkeys.

Feature	Old World Monkeys	New World Monkeys
Parvorder	Catarrhini	Platyrrhini
Range	Africa and Asia	Central and South America
Examples	baboon colobus monkey macaque mandrill proboscis monkey	capuchin monkey howler monkey marmoset spider monkey squirrel monkey
Relative size	Large	Small
Nose	Downward opening nostrils	Sideways opening nostrils
Tail	Non-grasping tails	Some species have prehensile tails
Premolars	8	12
Thumbs	Opposable	Aligned with other digits
Habitat	Rainforest, savanna, mountains	Arboreal
Diet	Fruit, foliage, insects	Primarily fruit
Paternal care of young	No	Yes

 

Diffen on monkey v. ape

Smithsonian National Zoological Park on primates

Chuck Smith on Old World v. New World monkeys