The squirrel galagos are a group of four species of
strepsirrhine
Strepsirrhini or Strepsirhini (; ) is a Order (biology), suborder of primates that includes the Lemuriformes, lemuriform primates, which consist of the lemurs of Fauna of Madagascar, Madagascar, galagos ("bushbabies") and pottos from Fauna of A ...
primate
Primates are a diverse order (biology), order of mammals. They are divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include the Tarsiiformes, tarsiers and ...
s. They are classified in the genus ''Sciurocheirus'' of the family
Galagidae
Galagos , also known as bush babies, or ''nagapies'' (meaning "night monkeys" in Afrikaans), are small nocturnal primates native to continental, sub-Sahara Africa, and make up the family Galagidae (also sometimes called Galagonidae). They are ...
.
Originally a single species was described, ''Galago alleni'', by
Waterhouse (1838), and the species was placed in a separate genus, ''
Sciurocheirus'' by
Gray
Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed ...
in 1863.
While some listings still included them in ''Galago'',
[ the species was split into three taxa, ''alleni'', ''cameronensis'', and ''gabonensis'' by Eisentraut (1973) and Groves (1989)][
* Genus ''Sciurocheirus''
** Bioko Allen's bushbaby, ''S. alleni''
** Cross River bushbaby, ''S. cameronensis''
** ]Gabon bushbaby
The Gabon bushbaby (''Sciurocheirus gabonensis'') is a species of primate in the family Galagidae found in Cameroon, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo. Its head and body length is 8.5 in with a 10-in tail, and it weighs about 10 oz. It liv ...
, ''S. gabonensis''
** Makandé squirrel galago, ''S. makandensis''
References
Galagos
Taxa named by John Edward Gray
Taxa described in 1872
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