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ALL ABOUT APES

Apes (also called hominoids) are a superfamily of primates (a type of mammal) that include gibbons, siamangs, gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, and people. No apes have tails. Most have long arms and broad chests. All apes but gorillas and humans are very good at climbing trees. Most apes are omnivores (eating both plants and animals). All apes but humans are endangered due to a loss of habitat.

The chimpanzee is the animal that is closest to people genetically; people and chimps have very similar DNA (about 98% of human and chimpanzee DNA is identical). Genetic studies show that chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor.

Early apes evolved during the Miocene epoch (7-26 million years ago). Fossils of these early apes have been found in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

A group of apes can be called a troop or a shrewdness.

Apes (superfamily Hominoidea)
The lesser apes (family Hylobatidae, meaning "tree dweller") include the gibbon and siamang. The great apes (family Pongidae) include the gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans.


GIBBON

A rare, small, slender, long-armed tree-dwelling ape from Asia that is incredibly acrobatic.


SIAMANG

A rare, black, noisy gibbon ape from Sumatra and Malaysia with some webbed digits and a throat sac.


GORILLA

The largest ape, a shy but social vegetarian, from Africa. There are three subspecies, the western lowland gorilla, the endangered mountain gorilla, and the eastern lowland gorilla.


CHIMPANZEE

A large, brown-to-black, very intelligent tree-dwelling ape from Africa with a hairless face, large ears and hands (for knuckle-walking). Bonobos, rare "pygmy chimps," are close, peaceful relatives of chimps from the Congo.


ORANGUTAN

A rare, large, tree-dwelling ape with long arms from Borneo and Sumatra.


HUMANS

Cladogram:

A cladogram of the greater apes.
A cladogram is a branching diagram that depicts species divergence from common ancestors. It helps classify organisms by their common ancestry, based on the branching of the evolutionary family tree.





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