Spamming the same comment I already made: If monkey is to be used as a scientific term instead of just a colloquial one, then apes are necessarily monkeys because everything they’re descended from is a monkey. Without apes included, “monkey” is paraphyletic. Apes and Old World monkeys are more closely related to each other than either are to New World monkeys.
Colloquially, “monkey” is already used to refer to apes all the time, so the linguistic argument is just a matter of preference and either usage is fine.
I'm not sure if theres an actual scientific basis for this but the simplest way ive found to think of it is that monkeys have tails and great apes don't. Their size misled me but i totally get why gibbons dont count. Spider monkeys are cooler anyway lol.
Gibbons are what they call “lesser apes” which is frankly offensive because they’re pretty great, too. But there is a species of macaque, which are unambiguously considered monkeys by most modern people, that also has no tail. In fact, it used to sometimes be called the Barbary ape.
Hm..I looked it up and your little friends do in fact have tails, they are just nubs to the point of being vestigial. But I can appreciate your larger point that in the colloquial understanding, we’re all just monkeys trying our best.
Spamming the same comment I already made: If monkey is to be used as a scientific term instead of just a colloquial one, then apes are necessarily monkeys because everything they’re descended from is a monkey. Without apes included, “monkey” is paraphyletic. Apes and Old World monkeys are more closely related to each other than either are to New World monkeys.
Colloquially, “monkey” is already used to refer to apes all the time, so the linguistic argument is just a matter of preference and either usage is fine.
I'm not sure if theres an actual scientific basis for this but the simplest way ive found to think of it is that monkeys have tails and great apes don't. Their size misled me but i totally get why gibbons dont count. Spider monkeys are cooler anyway lol.
Gibbons are what they call “lesser apes” which is frankly offensive because they’re pretty great, too. But there is a species of macaque, which are unambiguously considered monkeys by most modern people, that also has no tail. In fact, it used to sometimes be called the Barbary ape.
Hm..I looked it up and your little friends do in fact have tails, they are just nubs to the point of being vestigial. But I can appreciate your larger point that in the colloquial understanding, we’re all just monkeys trying our best.