Primates is an order of mammals, which is further divided into the strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and lorisids; and the haplorhines, which include tarsiers and simians. Primates arose 85–55 million years ago first from small terrestrial mammals, which adapted for life in tropical forests: many primate characteristics represent adaptations to the challenging environment among tree tops, including large brain sizes, binocular vision, color vision, vocalizations, shoulder girdles allowing a large degree of movement in the upper limbs, and opposable thumbs that enable better grasping and dexterity. Primates range in size from Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, which weighs 30 g (1 oz), to the eastern gorilla, weighing over 200 kg (440 lb). There are 376–524 species of living primates, depending on which classification is used. New primate species continue to be discovered: over 25 species were described in the 2000s, 36 in the 2010s, and six in the 2020s.
The macaques constitute a genus (Macaca) of gregarious Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques inhabit ranges throughout Asia, North Africa, and Europe. Macaques are principally frugivorous, although their diet also includes seeds, leaves, flowers, and tree bark. Some species such as the long-tailed macaque will supplement their diets with small amounts of meat from shellfish, insects, and small mammals. On average, a southern pig-tailed macaque in Malaysia eats about 70 large rats each year. All macaque social groups are arranged around dominant matriarchs.
Old World monkeys are primates in the family Cercopithecidae. Twenty-four genera and 138 species are recognized, making it the largest primate family. Old World monkey genera include baboons, red colobus, and macaques. Common names for other Old World monkeys include the talapoin, guenon, colobus, douc, vervet, gelada, mangabey, langur, mandrill, drill, surili (Presbytis), patas, and proboscis monkey.
The rhesus macaque, colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally brown or grey in colour, it is 47–53 cm (19–21 in) in length with a 20.7–22.9 cm (8.1–9.0 in) tail and weighs 5.3–7.7 kg (12–17 lb). It is native to South, Central, and Southeast Asia and has the widest geographic range of all non-human primates, occupying a great diversity of altitudes and habitats.
Before humans went into space in the 1960s, several other animals were launched into space, including numerous other primates, so that scientists could investigate the biological effects of spaceflight. The United States launched flights containing primate passengers primarily between 1948 and 1961 with one flight in 1969 and one in 1985. France launched two monkey-carrying flights in 1967. The Soviet Union and Russia launched monkeys between 1983 and 1996. Most primates were anesthetized before lift-off.
Animals in space originally served to test the survivability of spaceflight, before human spaceflights were attempted. Later, many species were flown to investigate various biological processes and the effects microgravity and space flight might have on them. Bioastronautics is an area of bioengineering research that spans the study and support of life in space. To date, seven national space programs have flown non-human animals into space: the United States, Soviet Union, France, Argentina, China, Japan and Iran.
The Little Joe 1B was a launch escape system test of the Mercury spacecraft, conducted as part of the U.S. Mercury program. The mission also carried a female rhesus monkey named Miss Sam in the Mercury spacecraft. The mission was launched January 21, 1960, from Wallops Island, Virginia. The Little Joe 1B flew to an apogee of 9.3 statute miles (15.0 km) and a range of 11.7 miles (18.9 km) out to sea. Miss Sam survived the 8 minute 35 second flight in good condition. The spacecraft was recovered by a Marine helicopter and returned to Wallops Island within about 45 minutes. Miss Sam was one of many monkeys used in space travel research.
The Emory National Primate Research Center located in Atlanta, Georgia, owned by Emory University, is a center of biomedical and behavioral research, is dedicated to improving human and animal health, and is the oldest of seven National Primate Research Centers partially funded by the National Institutes of Health. It is known for its nationally and internationally recognized biomedical and behavioral studies with nonhuman primates by Emory University.
The Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC) is one of seven federally funded National Primate Research Centers in the United States and has been affiliated with Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) since 1998. The center is located on 200 acres (0.81 km2) of land in Hillsboro, Oregon. Originally known as the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center (ORPRC), it was the first of the original seven primate centers established by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The research center is administered and funded by the National Center for Research Resources, receiving $11 million in federal grants annually.
Tetra is a rhesus macaque that was created through a cloning technique called "embryo splitting". She is the first "cloned" primate by artificial twinning, and was created by a team led by Professor Gerald Schatten of the Oregon National Primate Research Center.
Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, constitute an incomplete paraphyletic grouping; however, in the broader sense based on cladistics, apes (Hominoidea) are also included, making the terms monkeys and simians synonyms in regard to their scope.
Experiments involving non-human primates (NHPs) include toxicity testing for medical and non-medical substances; studies of infectious disease, such as HIV and hepatitis; neurological studies; behavior and cognition; reproduction; genetics; and xenotransplantation. Around 65,000 NHPs are used every year in the United States, and around 7,000 across the European Union. Most are purpose-bred, while some are caught in the wild.
Cousins is a nature documentary TV series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, England, first transmitted in the UK on BBC One in August 2000. The series looks at the primates, the closest living relatives to human beings.
Primate cognition is the study of the intellectual and behavioral skills of non-human primates, particularly in the fields of psychology, behavioral biology, primatology, and anthropology.
Miss Baker was a squirrel monkey who in 1959 became, along with female rhesus macaque Able, one of the first two animals launched into space by the United States who safely returned.
Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (M-PMV), formerly Simian retrovirus (SRV), is a species of retroviruses that usually infect and cause a fatal immune deficiency in Asian macaques. The ssRNA virus appears sporadically in mammary carcinoma of captive macaques at breeding facilities which expected as the natural host, but the prevalence of this virus in feral macaques remains unknown. M-PMV was transmitted naturally by virus-containing body fluids, via biting, scratching, grooming, and fighting. Cross contaminated instruments or equipment (fomite) can also spread this virus among animals.
Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua are a pair of identical crab-eating macaques that were created through somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), the same cloning technique that produced Dolly the sheep in 1996. They are the first cloned primates produced by this technique. Unlike previous attempts to clone monkeys, the donated nuclei came from fetal cells, not embryonic cells. The primates were born from two independent surrogate pregnancies at the Institute of Neuroscience of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai.
The Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) is a federally funded biomedical research facility affiliated with the Texas Biomedical Research Institute. The SNPRC became the seventh National Primate Research Center in 1999.
Albert II was a male rhesus macaque monkey who was the first primate and first mammal to travel to outer space. He flew from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, United States, to an altitude of 83 miles aboard a U.S. V-2 sounding rocket on June 14, 1949. Albert died upon landing after a parachute failure caused his capsule to strike the ground at high speed. Albert's respiratory and cardiological data were recorded up to the moment of impact.
Anti-immunoglobulin antibodies are defined as a protein that detects other antibodies from an organism. Specifically, anti-immunoglobulin antibodies are created by B-cells as antibodies to bind to other immunoglobulins. Immunoglobulins have two regions: the constant region and the variable region. The constant region is involved in effector function, while the variable region is involved in recognizing and binding to antigens. Anti-immunoglobulin antibodies may bind to either the variable or constant region of the immunoglobulin. Anti-immunoglobulin antibodies are a type of secondary antibody. They are able to detect primary antibodies through multiple methods such as a Western blot, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence staining, flow cytometry, and ELISA.
