Reptiles

Lee Berman · 07 Jan 2011, 14:21 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2011 09:21:10 -0500
Subject: (urth) Reptiles
Message-ID: <SNT123-W3919C4E0B6B7F18C2FB0BDCF0B0 at phx.gbl>

>Antonio Pedro Marques: Aren't 'monkey' and 'ape' synonyms of 'simian', popularly speaking?

Well, the primate order includes prosimians (lemurs, pottos, etc.) and simians which are 
monkeys and apes (and humans depending on how you want to divide). There is a significant 
difference between monkeys and apes, which is easiest to recognize by presence or absence of 
a tail (with some exceptions- a couple monkeys have no tail, a couple fossil apes do have a tail, 
but generally the rule holds).

I realize my background makes me a bit pedantic on the subject but I sometimes wish the general 
public could at least get the tail part right. Apes (esp. the "great" ones) are so much closer
to us humans than monkeys.  I usually hold my tongue on the subject in casual conversation but 
I am glad to think Wolfe isn't getting it wrong.

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