What is the difference between a monkey and an ape?

Question

What is the difference between a monkey and an ape?

Answer 1

There are two main groupings of monkeys, New World monkeys (platyrrhines) and Old World monkeys (cercopithecoids). NW monkeys live in South America - like spider monkeys, howlers, and squirrel monkeys - and OW monkeys live in Asia and Africa - like macaques, baboons, and langurs.

Apes and humans (hominoids) and OW monkeys are more closely related to one another than either is to NW monkeys. Together, apes, humans, and OW monkeys are known catarrhines.

Catarrhines - OW monkeys, apes, and humans - differ from NW monkeys primarily by the number teeth. Also, only New World monkeys may have prehensile tails.

Within the catarrhines, the easiest way to tell the difference is by looking for a tail. Apes and humans won't have a tail, while most OW monkeys do have tails. OW monkey tails are never prehensile, though.

Also, since apes and humans are adapted to specialized forms of locomotion, there are some pretty obvious differences in body proportions. Orangs (apes) have long arms oriented for brachiation and climbing; gibbons (apes) have *extremely* long arms, but also have short, strong legs for leaping; chimps and gorillas are knuckle walkers and good climbers when they're small enough; and humans are completely bipedal. So, hominoids tend to have stronger-set and longer upper limbs than OW monkeys, which usually have more equal arm-to-leg proportions.

briefly:

- apes and humans: strong upper bodies, long upper limbs, no tails

- African and Asian monkeys: more equal body proportions, tails

- South American monkeys: more equal body proportions, tails, possibly prehensile tails

Answer 2

Monkeys are much more like other mammals than apes and humans are. For example, most monkeys cannot swing from branch to branch, as apes and humans can, because their shoulder bones have a different structure. Instead, monkeys run along the tops of branches. Their skeletal structure is similar to a cat, dog or other four-footed animal, and they move in the same sort of way. On the evolutionary line leading to humans, monkeys split off long before apes did.

Answer 3

Generally a monkey has a tail and an ape doesn't. There are other minor differences, but the tail is the big one.