Mangabeys | |
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Young cherry-crowned mangabey | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Primates |
Suborder: | Haplorhini |
Infraorder: | Simiiformes |
Family: | Cercopithecidae |
Subfamily: | Cercopithecinae |
Tribe: | Papionini |
Groups included | |
Cladistically included but traditionally excluded taxa | |
Mangabeys are West African Old World monkeys, with species in three of the six genera of tribe Papionini.
The more typical representatives of Cercocebus, also known as the white-eyelid mangabeys, are characterized by their bare, upper eyelids, which are lighter than their facial skin colouring, and the uniformly coloured hairs of their fur.[1] Members of Lophocebus, the crested mangabeys, tend to have dark skin, eyelids that match their facial skin, and crests of hair on their heads.
A new species, the highland mangabey, was discovered in 2003 and was initially placed in Lophocebus.[2] The genus Rungwecebus was later created for this species.[3]
Lophocebus and Cercocebus were once thought to be very closely related, so much so that all the species were in one genus,[4] but the species within genus Lophocebus are now thought to be more closely related to the baboons in genus Papio,[4] while the species within genus Cercocebus are more closely related to the mandrill.[5]