Primate family tree main and great and lesser apes

Primate family tree

The primates are in some ways one of the most successful families. It is true that many are now endangered, however, unfortunately, that is as a result of the run-away success of the most successful member of the primate family us! Having left the rainforests behind, we have been reducing their coverage dramatically over the last few centuries.

The sad thing, is that while we have pushed many of our closest cousins towards extinction, the loss of forests may well cost us dearly in the future as well. As a species, we need to pull together to meet this challenge. in order to jump to the various families, click on the family of interest above – though all can also be reached by scrolling down.

Great Apes

Eastern Lowland gorilla

Mountain Gorilla

Western lowland gorilla

Cross river gorilla

Great ape Family split is thought to have split from its nearest relative – the gibbon family, around 17 million years ago.

4 million years later the Orangutan family split from the gorilla line and the human/chimp line.

3 million years after this (so around 10 million years ago) the gorilla family split from the Homo (humans) and Pan

Finally the human line (homo) split from the Pan line 5-6 million years ago.

It should be noted, that chimpanzees and Bonobos split from a common ancestor just 1.8 million years ago. This occurred as the two populations ceased to be able to have contact with each other – the Congo rive formed between 1.5 and 2 million years ago.

For more information on each species, click on their photo and this will take you to their page

It should be noted that while I have grouped eastern western and skywalker gibbon together, there is some contention that the skywalker gibbon should be in its own genus, having diverged around half a million years aog

Gibbons

siamang gibbon genus Symphalangus

hookock gibbon (Eastern, Western and Skywalker) Genus Hoolock

genus Normascus (crested gibbon)

Genus Hylobates (dward gibbons) Agile gibbon

Genus Nomascus

This family is the Genus: Nomascus or crested gibbon.

Black crested gibbon

Eastern black crested gibbon

Hanain black crested gibbon

Northern buffed gibbon

Norhtern white cheeked gibbon

Southern white cheeked gibbon

Yellow cheeked gibbon

The last Genus of gibbons is Hylobates: dwarf gibbons.

Abbots (Western) grey gibbon

Agile gibbon

bornean white bearded gibbon

Eastern grey gibbon

kloss gibbon

lar gibbons male and female

Mullers grey gibbon

Pileated gibbon

Silvery gibbon

aaa Zhangjiajie sandstone peak forest reserve, China

Zhangjiajie sandstone peak forest reserve, China

This reserve covers a complex to trevane covered in ravines deep canyons and has a mild climate with abundant rainfall. As a result much of the area is covered by rainforest and there is a great deal of wildlife. It is a total of 1,400 square miles or 3,600 square kilometres.

Animals of particular interest include the leopard, the clouded leopard, the pygmy slow loris, the yellow belly pheasant, and long-tailed pheasant, the giant salamander, five step snake and many more. Others include the stump tailed macaque, the suman sheep, the pangolin, the black bear, the lynx, the otter, the forest musk deer, the samba deer, the jackal, the mandarin duck, the sparrow hawk and a few more.

Rare species include the bison, the wild goat, the wild boar, the wildcat, the civit cat, the flying squirrel and several more.

February 10, 2022June 28, 2022

Wrong assumption about red squirrel once again?

For years it has been assumed that it is a mixture of these two reasons that red squirrels survive but perhaps not

Food sources in conifer plantations tend to be smaller, limited to small cones and such like. As such, this suited the smaller red squirrel more than the invasive grey. However this has recently been thrown into doubt.

Where as, in broadleaf tree plantations there are a variety of food sources for pine martens and so red squirrels will not be exclusively predated, in conifer forests with less food to find red squirrels are hunted more often.

This research is based on 5 years of observations from the public and camera traps. It was carried out in northern Ireland, and looked at pine martens red and grey squirrels.

In natural woodlands there is a diverse range of prey and plenty of refuges for red squirrels, however in conifer plantations pine martens will eat far more squirrels because there is little else for it to find.

We therefore need to stop replacing large areas of natural wood with plantations.

If this is true, then the pine marten has even more pressure on it, as it must drive the grey squirrel out so reds can survive. A recent study of grey squirrels dna shows that the UK population relies far more on humans. Far from colonising the country they appear to have been moved by humans and installed in new parts of the country on many occasion. One example, showed this by the fact that the grey squirrels around Aberdeen appear to have originated with the population around the new forest.