Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Vervet_Monkey_%28Chlorocebus_pygerythrus%29.jpg
Many kids first learn what a monkey is through the similarities between them and humans. We share hands, arms, looks, intelligence, and sometimes habits! Even if others told kids that humans didn't come from monkeys, it would be hard to believe. And humans don't descend from monkeys. They just share a common ancestor from 25-30 million years ago. Evolution played its part and led us to the differences we see so clearly now.
Firstly, what is a monkey? Right off the bat, most could say that they are mammals. Correct. More specifically, they are part of the order primates and the infraorder of simiiformes. Monkeys tend to live in trees, of course, with the occasional species that prefer the ground. As in baboons. However, one couldn't just walk outside, squint into the trees, and see a monkey. Even if you live near tropical rain forests in Africa, Central America, South America, or Asia, the chances are slim. One could try to befriend monkeys, but once monkeys start to feel their alpha status is being challenged, they can quickly become aggressive.
Most monkeys are diurnal, meaning they are awake during the day and at rest during the night. Furthermore, they're considered an intelligent species. Specifically, they can have high levels of cognition, or the mental process of learning and understanding. They have made tools to assist them with food and developed social displays. They can also determine what "makes sense" and what doesn't. The decision making skills and understanding of monkeys is hardly challenged by any other species on Earth. That is, with the exclusion of humans.
Even with many similarities, how close are humans really to our monkey relatives? Pretty close, and pretty far simultaneously. As of now, humans share over 90% of our DNA with our primate cousins, apes included. This percentage mainly codes for physical appearances, like eye positioning, gender, limb number, and more. The rest codes for all the distinct differences in biology and behavior.However, if you are on the search for the closest human relative, your common chimpanzee and bonobos are the closest at 99%. However, chimpanzees and bonobos are not monkeys but rather apes. Monkeys are just much more distant evolutionary relatives from a common ancestor.
Now for some fun facts!
- There are currently 264 known monkey species.
- Apes are NOT monkeys. Easiest deciding factor? Apes don't have tails while monkeys do.
- The smallest monkey, the pygmy marmoset, is the size of your palm. Even then, they can leap up to more than 16 feet in the air.
- The monkey's tail tip is bare skin. It acts similar to our human fingertips. Not only that, it's sensitive to touch, has tiny ridges, and gives the tail a better grip overall!
- There are two general types of monkeys: New World and Old World Monkeys. New World monkeys come from South and Central America while Old World monkeys come from Africa and Asia.
With the similarities and the differences between human and skeletons, we can learn so much about evolution and other species. 25-30 million years of evolution leaves its similarities for us to discover and learn, about them, and eventually, us!
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30 Day Writing Challenge
RandomIt's just some random writing to stretch out the fingers for a good school year. Kinda. Nonfiction to fanfiction, it's kind of a mess, but I like it that way. And for all the AUs, I don't own the characters at all. I just love them. Simple as that...
