Apes vs. Monkeys: How to Tell the Difference

 

Students of mine will hopefully remember some important lessons from my classes, including one of my biggest pet peeves: when people confuse monkeys (example pictured left) and apes (example pictured right).  This is a sore subject that comes up not only in my physical/biological anthropology classes but also in my introductory anthropology courses.  I often go into the appropriate amount of detail explaining this (depending on the primary subject matter of the course), but ultimately it is this lesson that inspired this blog post, in which you will learn all about the differences between monkeys and apes.

 

First, it is important to recognize that monkeys and apes all fall within the taxonomic order known as primates, which is reviewed here.  These is a great deal of species variety within the Primate Order, including but not limited to Tana River Mangabey to the various species of orangutans.  There are common biological characteristics that link all primates into the order, but there are distinctive biological differences formed from years of evolutionary change that help differentiate monkeys and apes.  These include the following:

·         Presence or Absence of a Tail:  Typically, monkeys have tails, whereas apes do not.  Apes will have the anatomical components for a tail, but these typically end as part of the sacral vertebrae (or butt area).  If you see a primate with a tail chances are it is a monkey, not an ape.

·         Overall Body Size: Apes are typically much larger than monkeys.  They are wider, taller, and heavier than monkeys, despite often residing in the same or similar environments.

·         Overall Brain Size: Apes also typically have larger brains.  This does not mean that monkeys are less intelligent, although monkeys have not yet been able to demonstrate an ability to learn sign language as apes have been.

·         Locomotion Differences: Monkeys and apes move differently.  Monkeys tend to run through the trees quadrupedal walkers, whereas apes tend to swing through the trees, typically being identified as brachiators or knuckle walkers.

·         Genetic Relationships to Humans: Believe it or not, but humans are considered apes, meaning that all of the ape species are more closely related to each other genetically than they are to monkeys.

 

There you have it: the knitty gritty (or most of it) that covers the differences between primates known as monkeys versus apes.  Hopefully you will not continue to make that mistake when you happen to see a primate (such as at the zoo; if you are so lucky, on vacation where nonhuman primates exist; or are in my presence.)  😉

 

 References

Robert Jurmaine, Lynn Kilgore, Wanda Trevathan, Eric Bartelink.  Essentials of Physical Anthropology.  Cengage.