Saturday, June 6, 2020

Orangutan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangutan

The orangutans are three extant species of great apes native to Indonesia and Malaysia

Orangutans are currently found in the rainforest of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. 所以 中國人的祖先 不是他們以為的 那條地底下不安於室的亂竄的其實就是一條蟲的龍 是那棵樹上的猩猩

The orangutans are the only surviving species of the subfamily Ponginae, which also included several other species, including the largest known primate, Gigantopithecus blacki. The ancestors of the Ponginae split from the main ape line in Africa 15.7 to 19.3 million years ago (mya).

The title of this book is a bit tongue-in-cheek. Primate taxonomy has changed immensely in recent years, and while the changes make the subject more difficult to master, the classification of great apes is much improved. Like it or not, we are great apes. We used to have our own family, Hominidae, as distinct from the other great apes, making us the hominids. All great apes are now hominids. At the level of the subfamily, the Asian great ape (the orangutan) splits off, leaving us and our fellow African great apes in the subfamily Homininae. We are hominines. (The History of Our Tribe: Hominini, Barbara Helm Welker, 2017, p. x)  

I don't think a great ape, any great ape, can understand the above great classification system, which means we, as the great apes, are not great, at all.