The First Apes: Something like us?

The First Apes: Something Like Us?

We look into their eyes and we see;
everything, that we could be.

There are few things more joyous than monkeys. Watching them scamper about, play games and steal things from unsuspecting tourists is potentially a cure for everything bad in the world. The deep connection to the natural world that one suddenly feels when you look into the eyes of an ape is something that not enough people experience. If we are looking for a way to make people feel more connected and more part of the natural world, we should start with the great apes. Let’s dive in, to the evolution of primates.

Apes, Monkeys and Primates: A who’s who?

Monkeys are small animals with tails and which spend a lot of time in trees. Apes are larger animals that spend more time on the ground (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans). Primates is the more scientific term that includes them both.

Most people are familiar with a few types of monkeys and primates, particularly the big human-like ones. However, the diversity in primates, particularly some of the older ones that are not as well known, is actually astounding.

On the right (from top left to bottom right) we have:

a tarsier – one of the tiniest primates, weighs 150 grams, with enormous eyes that are fixed in its head, so it rotates its neck 180 degrees to see;
a siamang – a glorious gibbon that has a pouch at the bottom of its neck that inflates when it yells;
a proboscis monkey, truly handsome gentlemen;
a golden languar – gorgeous golden monkey with luscious locks and dreamy dark eyes;
a bushbaby – a tiny African night monkey with enormous ears that it folds away when running; and
an aye aye – a night-dwelling lemur with an extra-long middle finger it uses to pull grubs from treebark.

Near Primates: Tree-shrews and Colugos

The earliest monkeys evolved from small tree/squirrel-like shrew things. Not many of these pre-primate animals are around today, a lot of them were around during the time of the dinosaurs and died out. However, the one weird one we still have is the colugo, a small strange gliding squirrel-like thing (often called a flying lemur). Similarly, there are a few species of tree shrews that survive in South East Asia.

These are the animals most closely related to primates. On the left is a cologu, an animal roughly halfway between squirrels and monkeys. They live pretty much only in South East Asia and are absolutely gorgeous. They are incredibly shy, live at night, are very endangered and have not been studied very much. This means know extraordinarily little about them for such a fascinating creature so closely related to us. On the left is a tree shrew – similar to a squirrel but even smaller and limited to South East Asia (Images: Hendy Mp and 3268zauber).

Non-monkey Monkeys: Lemurs and lorises

Lemurs and lorises are examples of some of the oldest monkeys, that split off from the mainline of monkeys roughly 50 million years ago. Lemurs ended up in Madagascar and so we’re preserved in their original form. Lorises are very different and have stuck to their niche of quiet, slow-moving night animals that try and keep out of everybody’s way (Images: Wikimedia and Chien C Lee, www.wildborneo.com.my).

The next step in primate evolution is lemurs and lorises. They are both types of monkeys, but they are some of the earliest monkeys and do not have a lot of the characteristics we think of as being monkey-like. They have smaller brains, spend a lot of time active at night and rely a lot more on smell than more modern monkeys, which have sophisticated eyes.

Lemurs are pretty well known, particularly the ringtailed lemur. However, there are hundreds of species of lemurs, and they only survive in Madagascar, having split off from the main line of monkeys about 50 million years ago. The species of lemurs are incredibly diverse. There was actually gorilla size lemurs on Madagascar up to 2,000 ago that were probably hunted to extinction by early humans.

Loris’s are a similar creature but are very nocturnal, and move very slowly and quietly. When startled, they will freeze and raise their hands up in a somewhat comical manner. However, they actually do this so they can lick a particular gland in their armpit, which produces venom. Once they’ve done this, their bite becomes venomous – which is pretty wild behavior, even for a monkey.

Monkeys: New-world, old-world and apes

Primates are divided into three broad categories, new world monkeys – the South American monkeys, old world monkeys – the African monkeys and apes. The far-right is a new world monkey, a tamarind – small, agile, tree-dwelling and with a tail. The middle is a macaque and old-world monkey, that spends a fair bit of time on the ground and does not have a tail. The far-left is a chimpanzee – one of the four great apes, which is technically a type of African old-world monkey (Images: D Pape, Wikimedia).

The proper monkeys (i.e. not lemurs and lorises) are divided into two separate groups depending on where they live in the world. The ‘new world’ monkeys – that is, the monkeys discovered living in South America and ‘old world monkeys’ from Asia and Africa.

New World monkeys are pretty much all tree-dwelling monkeys – marmosets, capuchins and spider monkeys. These are what people think of as monkeys – small scampering animals that spend lots of time in trees but are still reasonably agile on the ground. They eat mainly fruit, and also have prehensile tails to balance on tree branches. They generally evolved earlier than the old-world monkeys (which is confusing). They probably split off from the old world monkeys about 35 million years ago and started evolving independently (see the tamarind monkey – a new world monkey on the top right).

Old-world monkeys hand out more on the ground. They include the apes (like us), gibbons and baboons. They tend to be larger, more upright in posture, less colorful and generally a bit more ape-like. You’d think, given how recently old-world monkeys evolved that their wouldn’t be that many of them. You’d be wrong. There are actually are a full 138 species of old-world monkeys, many types of baboons, gibbons and other larger monkeys.

The old-world monkeys then split into great apes and lesser apes. The great apes are orangutangs, chimpanzees, gorillas and humans. The lesser apes are the various species of gibbon that are still alive today. The gibbons are a bit special and treated separately from other monkeys because they walk more upright (some people even call them the lesser apes, as opposed to us the “Great Apes”). However, they fly through the trees with incredible agility – they have incredibly dexterous and flexible shoulders which allow them to swing incredibly graciously from trees. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.

🔥 Gibbons like to live dangerously from NatureIsFuckingLit

This is a gibbon sneaking up to play a prank on an orangutan. For some unfathomable reason, gibbons absolutely love to play pranks on animals that are much bigger than them – they will even do it to tigers. There is a whole subreddit dedicated to videos of gibbons going out of their way to annoy other animals, we really recommend you go spend a few hours watching them. Ape behavior is truly bizarre.

Humans and Apes: Some reflections

This is a video of a mother with a newborn walking around a zoo. A young female gorilla saw her through the glass and came over and the two sat next to each other. The gorilla clearly recognized the woman and the child and saw herself. So did the woman. It’s truly one of those beautiful moments where the internet comes into its own.

It took so much for life on Earth to get to where it is today. Firstly, there is the Big Bang, and the Universe forming and that entire chapter. Then, once the Earth formed, it took billions of years for even the most basic life on earth to form (see our post on that). And along the way, life had to jump so many hurdles and has changed in so many radical ways – develop cellular structure, develop multicellularity, plants, animals, and survive the various great extinction events that almost wiped out life on Earth so many times. So many species have passed away and we will never know anything about them. So much has lead us to where we are today.

However, despite this incredible history that lead to us, it did not go in a straight line. This is particularly true with the evolution of apes. Whenever people study the evolution of primates, monkeys, and apes, it’s can almost feel like a pitstop, on the way to studying humans. And there is a place for that. It is essential that humans start seeing ourselves as more connected to nature and more a part of the natural world. And it is so easy to see oneself in the eyes of a chimpanzee. But also, they are actually, the eyes of a chimpanzee. A completely different, unique and wonderful creature, with just as much right to exist as a human.

Nature and the natural world are not just a life support system for human civilization. While we are incredibly special and the culmination of an incredibly long and beautiful story of the change and adaption of life on Earth, there are many other chapters. Evolution has produced many other things, of which we are only one. Even at the last moments, with apes and monkeys, our nearest ancestors, we find such diversity and beauty and color. They are so much more than just stepping stones to humanity. Really understanding and appreciating our place in the evolution of life means admitting that we are a much smaller part of the story than it might first appear. And that’s okay. It’s an honor just to be part of it all.

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