Classification of Primate or Man place in Animal Kingdom
There are numerous classifications of primates suggested by various scientists. However, the classification of Simpson (1945), based on their morphology, is widely accepted, and is given below:
| Taxonomic category | Groups including primates | Members | |
| Kingdom | Animalia | Multicellular (have sexual reproduction, nervous system, differentiated tissues)* | |
| Phylum | Chordata Nonchordata | (Chordata):Animals with vertebral column (Nonchordata):Animals without vertebral column | |
| Class | Aves Pisces Amphibia Reptilia Mammalia | (Aves)Animals with feathers, wings formed by forelimbs (Pisces): Animals having gills throughout life, usually have fins (Amphibia)Animals with 4 pentadactyl limbs; pelvic girdle unlike fish, have eggs without protective shell, fertilised without coition (Reptilia): Animals having no direct articulation of dentary bone with the skull, homodont, polyphyodont (Mammalia)Warm blooded furry animals, heterodont animals, diphyodont, single dentary arch which articulates with squamosal bone of skull, thorax separated by a diaphragm from abdomen, and all other animals that suckle their young | |
| Subclass | Prototheria Metatheria Eutheria | Prototheria: Egg laying mammals Metatheria: Pouched mammals Eutheria: Placental mammals | |
| Order | Insectivora Chiroptera Dermoptera Edentata Pholidota Primates | Insectivora: Ordinarily insect eaters, small and nocturnal, simple brain Chiroptera: Ulna reduced to a vestige, have wings to fly Dermoptera: Larger than chiroptera Edentata: Usually without teeth, slow in locomotion Pholidota: Really toothless, scales on their body Primates: Prosimii (the lower primates: tarsiers, lorises, lemurs, etc.)* and Anthropoidea (monkeys, baboons, apes and man)* | |
| Suborder | Prosimii | Lemuriformes, Lorisiformes, Tarsiiformes (the most primitive of the primates)* | |
Anthropoidea | Ceboidea (Platyrrhines/New World Monkeys)*, Cercopithecoidea (Catarrhines/Old World Monkeys)* and Hominoidea | ||
| Superfamily | Ceboidea Cercopithecoidea Hominoidea | Cebidae and Callitrichidae (monkeys: owl, saki, howler, capuchin, spider and goeldi’s, marmosets)* Cercopithecidae (monkeys: rhesus, drill, baboon, colobus, nasalis, langur etc)* Hominoidea: Pongidae and Hominidae | |
| Family | Pongidae Hominidae | Pongidae: Hylobatinae (gibbon, siamang)* and Ponginae (orangutan, chimpanzee, gorilla)* Pongidae: Man (Homo)*, ape-man (Australopithecus)*, and early ape-man (Ramapithecus)* | |
| Genus | Homo | Early man (Homo erectus)* and modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens)* | |
| Species | sapiens | Modern humans including early subspecies and all living races |