Monkey

With the exclusion of lemurs, tarsiers, and lorises, a monkey is any of roughly 200 species of tailed primate. Monkeys are distinguished from apes by the presence of a tail (even if it is only a small nub), as well as their narrow-chested bodies and other skeleton traits. Although baboons and mandrills are significant exceptions, most monkeys have a small, generally flat face with little prominence of the muzzle. Tropical forests are home to the vast majority of animals, which move on all four limbs.During the day, all but the durukuli of tropical Central and South America are active, roaming in groups in search of plants, bird eggs, smaller animals, and insects to feed. Because monkeys can sit upright, their hands are free to do a variety of manipulating tasks. Monkeys, with the exception of a few Old World species, are primarily arboreal, leaping from limb to limb as they move through the trees. Both their hands and feet are utilized for grasping and contain five digits, with the thumb and big toe diverging from the others.The digits of most animals have flattened nails, while marmosets have claws on all of their digits save the big toe, which has a nail. Monkeys walk on the ground with their complete soles of their feet touching the ground but their palms up. They rarely walk on two legs (bipedally) and can only stand straight for brief periods of time, if at all.