Anthropomorpha (original spelling: Antropomorpha) is a defunct taxon, replaced by '' Primates''. The order was established by Carl Linnaeus in the first edition of his book

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nom ...

(1735) for genera ''

Homo ''Homo'' () is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus ''Australopithecus'' that encompasses the extant species ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related ...

'' (humans), ''

Simia In his ''Systema Naturae'' of 1758, Carl Linnaeus divided the Order Primates within ''Mammalia'' into four genera: ''Homo'', ''Simia'', ''Lemur'', and '' Vespertilio''. His ''Vespertilio'' included all bats, and has since been moved from Primates ...

'' (monkeys and apes in general) and '' Bradypus'' (sloths). The taxon is notable for the history of

human taxonomy Human taxonomy is the classification of the human species (systematic name ''Homo sapiens'', Latin: "wise man") within zoological taxonomy. The systematic genus, ''Homo'', is designed to include both anatomically modern humans and extinct varie ...

as the first to combine

apes Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and as well as Europe in prehistory), which together with its sister ...

(Linnaeus' ''

'') and

humans Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...

under the same clade. In the 1758 edition of the same book, Linnaeus discarded this name and began to use the word Primates, which has replaced Anthropomorpha completely. A dissertation on the ''Anthropomorpha'' was published by Linnaeus' student Christian Emmanuel Hoppius in 1760. The name is no longer considered valid, as the animals that were included within Anthropomorpha are now believed to belong to multiple clades. For example,

two-toed sloth ''Choloepus'' is a genus of xenarthran mammals of Central and South America within the monotypic family Choloepodidae, consisting of two-toed sloths, sometimes also called two-fingered sloths. The two species of ''Choloepus'' (which means "lame ...

s were included within Anthropomorpha, but are now considered to be in the family Choloepodidae, which is not closely related to the

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including hum ...

Comte de Buffon Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (; 7 September 1707 – 16 April 1788) was a French naturalist, mathematician, cosmologist, and encyclopédiste. His works influenced the next two generations of naturalists, including two prominent F ...

correctly rejected the combination of sloths and primates within the same order.

References

{{reflist Obsolete primate taxa Mammal orders