Descriptions of East Asiatic Mammals 119 
with the name, meaning "first," and partly to provide a satis- 
factory sense of eminence to Man, a member of the order. As 
research into comparative anatomy and comparative psychology 
uncovers more and more facts about them, the preeminence once 
given the Primates becomes more doubtful. In only one partic- 
ular, admittedly a very important one, have the Primates sur- 
passed the other progressive mammalian orders. That particular 
is the special development of parts of the brain and the ability 
(in man) to reason from cause to effect. In virtually all other 
ways, in acuteness of the senses, in physical endurance, in func- 
tional effectiveness, some of the Primates are easily surpassed 
by many other kinds of animals. Bearing this in mind, it is well 
for Man, The Primate, to conduct himself with reasonable 
humility toward other organisms. 
The Primates include four primary groups of animals of 
yery different levels of development and of very different nu- 
merical importance. The lowest in the scale of evolution, the 
Lemurs, are believed most nearly related to the Insectivora and 
to the Menotyphla, that branch of the Insectivora to which the 
tree-shrews and hedgehogs belong. That relationship, though 
exceedingly remote, appears to be fairly well established. The 
separation took place many millions of years ago, in the 
Mesozoic period, before the total extinction of the dinosaurs. 
Successive division of those dawn Primates gave rise to the 
chief groups of the order still living in the world today — to the 
Lemurs, the Marmosets, the Prehensile-tailed Monkeys of 
tropical America, the Old World Monkeys, and the Gibbons 
and Anthropoid Apes. The degree of evolutionary development 
of each is expressed by the succession above. Man is one of the 
Apes. 
Broadly speaking, the Primates are animals of the tropics. 
A few enter the subtropics, chiefly by living at considerable 
heights up mountains within the tropical zones. The Macaque 
of Japan and the Snub-nosed Monkeys of China are at home 
in relatively cold climates. All three of the large anthropoids, 
