. Zoology : for students and general readers . Zoology. THE MONKEYS AND APES. 631 The apes live in trees, only occasionally walking on the ground ; their posture is semi-erect; they are tailless, the fore legs are much longer than the hind legs, and used as arms, the radius heing ca- pable of complete prona- tion and supination. In the form of the skull, of the brain with its convolu- tions, and in the teeth, there is a still nearer ap- proach to man. Tliere are three tyjiical forms or genera of apes, , the gibbon {Hylobafes, Fig. 536); the orang {Mi- metes pithecus) and chim- panzee {M. n


. Zoology : for students and general readers . Zoology. THE MONKEYS AND APES. 631 The apes live in trees, only occasionally walking on the ground ; their posture is semi-erect; they are tailless, the fore legs are much longer than the hind legs, and used as arms, the radius heing ca- pable of complete prona- tion and supination. In the form of the skull, of the brain with its convolu- tions, and in the teeth, there is a still nearer ap- proach to man. Tliere are three tyjiical forms or genera of apes, , the gibbon {Hylobafes, Fig. 536); the orang {Mi- metes pithecus) and chim- panzee {M. nujer, Fig. 537), and the gorilla. The gibbons are nearest to the monkeys; they are little less than a metre (3 feet) in height, and are very slender, with very long arms, so that they are rapid, agile climbers, also run- ning over the ground with ease and rapidity; when standing erect the fingers touch the ground; only the thumbs and great toes have true nails, in all the higher apes the nails of all the digits being flattened ; the spinal column is nearly straight; they have four- teen pairs of ribs and eighteen dorso-lumbar ver- tebrse, there being in the other apes usually seventeen, as in man. The siamang lives in the forest of Sumatra; others inhabit Java, Borneo, Cambogia, Pig. 536.—Skeleton of Siamang Ape, a gib- l)On.—After Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Packard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring), 1839-1905. New York : Henry Holt


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1879