Mangabeys are West African

Old World monkey 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 (genus '' Papio''), red colobus (genus '' Piliocolob ...

s, with species in three of the six genera of tribe

Papionini Papionini is a tribe of Old World monkeys that includes several large monkey species, which include the macaques of North Africa and Asia, as well as the baboons, geladas, mangabeys, kipunji, Drill (animal), drills, and mandrills, which are essen ...

. 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. 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''. The genus '' Rungwecebus'' was later created for this species. ''Lophocebus'' and ''Cercocebus'' were once thought to be very closely related, so much so that all the species were in one genus, but the species within genus ''Lophocebus'' are now thought to be more closely related to the

baboon Baboons are primates comprising the biology, genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys, in the family Cercopithecidae. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow ba ...

s in genus '' Papio'', while the species within genus ''Cercocebus'' are more closely related to the

mandrill The mandrill (''Mandrillus sphinx'') is a large Old World monkey native to west central Africa. It is one of the most colorful mammals in the world, with red and blue skin on its face and posterior. The species is Sexual dimorphism, sexually ...

Genera

The three genera of mangabeys are: *'' Lophocebus'', the crested mangabeys *'' Rungwecebus'', the highland mangabey (''kipunji'') *'' Cercocebus'', the white-eyelid mangabeys

References

{{Animal common name Papionini Primates of Africa