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. [cite web | title = The Paleobiology Database | url = http://paleodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?action=checkTaxonInfo&taxon_no=40692 | accessdate = 2006-08-26] "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:

References

External links

* [http://www.origins.tv/darwin/zoo/linnaeus.htm Disposition of Primate Names Used by Linnaeus]