prosimian

1 9.9

A small primate with large eyes and ears that is active at night like a lemur

noun
/prəˈsɪmiən/

Specialized

: prosímio

Many prosimian species, like the slow loris, are nocturnal and have large eyes for night vision.

Examples

The ring-tailed lemur is a well-known prosimian that is native to Madagascar.
To learn the behavior of the little prosimian in the field, Sterling studied them in the rough terrain of Nosy Mangabe, managing to track them at night.

Academic text (1993)
"It is amazing to find this ability in a prosimian."

Academic text (1993)
At 20 pounds, the teddy bear-like indri is the largest living prosimian.

Academic text (1993)
Scientists combat habitat decline and local superstition to preserve the long-fingered prosimian.

Academic text (1993)
The biggest surprise was finding out that chimpanzees hunt other primates (a prosimian primate called a galago) with tools, something we thought only humans really did systematically.

Blog text (26)
In the rainforest, the tiny mouse lemur is the smallest living prosimian and is very active at night.

Surface Forms

prosimian singular

prosimans plural

prosimii plural

Morphology

prosimian = simian (semi-transparent) = pro + simian + technically taxonomy?

If a learner knows 'simian' and the classical prefix 'pro-' meaning 'before', they can partly infer a pre-monkey or primitive primate sense, but the exact zoological category is specialized.

Etymology

Prosimian comes from pro- meaning 'before' and simian meaning 'ape' or 'monkey'. So prosimian literally means 'before monkeys' and names early primates like lemurs and lorises, which is why these animals keep some older, more basic features.