SIMIA

In his ''Systema Naturae'' of 1758, Carolus Linnaeus divided the Order Primates into four genera: ''Homo'', '''Simia''', ''Lemur'', and ''Vespertilio''. His ''Vespertilio'' included all bats, and has since been moved from Primates to Chiroptera.^[1] ''Homo'' contained humans (''Homo sapiens'' and ''Homo troglodytes''), ''Lemur'' contained four lemurs and a colugo, and ''Simia'' contained all the rest — it was, in modern terms, a wastebasket taxon for the primates. It is interesting to note that Linnaeus did not think that ''Homo'' should form a distinct group from ''Simia'', but he classified them that way primarily to avoid conflict with religious authorities. If we take this into account, ''Simia'' (including ''Homo'') would be roughly equivalent to the Suborder Haplorrhini of the Primates (while ''Lemur'' would be roughly equivalent to the Suborder Strepsirrhini).
''Homo'', ''Lemur'', and ''Vespertilio'' have survived as generic names, but ''Simia'' has not. All the species have since been moved to other genera, and in 1929, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature ruled (in opinion 114) that ''Simia'' be suppressed. However, the genus ''Simias'' is valid and contains a single species, the Pig-tailed Langur (''Simias concolor'').
The original genus ''Simia'' came to include these species:

Modern genus	Modern common name	Original scientific name
''Tarsius'' Storr, 1780	Philippine Tarsier	''Simia syrichta'' Linnaeus, 1758
''Callithrix'' Erxleben, 1777	Common Marmoset	''Simia jacchus'' Linnaeus, 1758
''Leontopithecus'' Lesson, 1840	Lion tamarin	''Simia rosalia'' Linnaeus, 1766
''Saguinus'' Hoffmannsegg, 1807	Red-handed Tamarin	''Simia midas'' Linnaeus, 1758
	Cottontop Tamarin	''Simia oedipus'' Linnaeus, 1758
''Cebus'' Erxleben, 1777	White-headed Capuchin	''Simia capucina'' Linnaeus, 1758
	Tufted Capuchin	''Simia apella'' Linnaeus, 1758
		''Simia fatuellus'' Linnaeus, 1766
''Saimiri'' Voigt, 1831	Common Squirrel Monkey	''Simia sciurea'' Linnaeus, 1758
''Pithecia'' Desmarest, 1804	White-faced Saki	''Simia pithecia'' Linnaeus, 1766
''Alouatta'' Lacépède, 1799	Red-handed Howler	''Simia belzebul'' Linnaeus, 1766
	Venezuelan Red Howler	''Simia seniculus'' Linnaeus, 1766
''Ateles'' É. Geoffroy, 1806	Red-faced Spider Monkey	''Simia paniscus'' Linnaeus, 1758
''Lagothrix'' É. Geoffroy, 1812	Brown Woolly Monkey	''Simia lagotricha'' Humboldt, 1812
''Chlorocebus'' Gray, 1870	Grivet	''Simia aethiops'' Linnaeus, 1766
	Green Monkey	''Simia sabacea'' Linnaeus, 1766
''Cercopithecus'' Linnaeus, 1758 (named as a subsection of ''Simia'')	Moustached Guenon	''Simia cephus'' Linnaeus, 1758
	Diana Monkey	''Simia diana'' Linnaeus, 1758
		''Simia faunus'' Linnaeus, 1758
	Greater Spot-nosed Monkey	''Simia nictitans'' Linnaeus, 1766
''Macaca'' Lacépède, 1799	Southern Pig-tailed Macaque	''Simia nemestrina'' Linnaeus, 1766
	Lion-tailed Macaque	''Simia silenus'' Linnaeus, 1758
	Barbary Macaque	''Simia sylvanus'' Linnaeus, 1758
		''Simia inuus'' Linnaeus, 1766
''Papio'' Erxleben, 1777	Hamadryas Baboon	''Simia hamadryas'' Linnaeus, 1758
	Yellow Baboon	''Simia cynocephalus'' Linnaeus, 1758
''Mandrillus'' Ritgen, 1824	Mandrill	''Simia sphynx'' Linnaeus, 1758
		''Simia maimon'' Linnaeus, 1766
''Pongo'' Lacépède, 1799	Bornean Orangutan	''Simia pygmaeus'' Linnaeus, 1760
''Pan'' Oken, 1816	Common Chimpanzee	''Simia troglodytes'' Blumenbach, 1775

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References

External links

References

1. The Paleobiology Database

External links

★ Disposition of Primate Names Used by Linnaeus