Examples of primate related disciplines might include anatomy, physiology, ecology, ethology, taxonomy, geology or neurology. Primates are one of the more diverse groups of mammals. In size range, they are similar to the order Carnivora. Primates are largely tropical creatures. Natural populations occur in the neotropical region of South America, through Central America as far north as southern Mexico, in northwestern and throughout sub- Saharan Africa, in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the island of Madagascar, throughout the Indian subcontinent and southern China, in northeastern China and Japan, throughout Southeast Asia and Sundaland, and into Wallacea.
Primates are absent from New Guinea, Australia, and the oceanic islands.
As a group, primates eat a wide range of foods, including fruits, leaves, shoots, flowers, lichens, fungi, nectar, barks, gums, invertebrates, and vertebrates. Primate reproductive patterns and social units are also diverse, ranging from monogamous, territorial families to large, gregarious, multimale troops and to complex fission-fusion communities in which associations change frequently based on the availability of food and sexually receptive females. Despite their evolutionary success, however, primates are seriously threatened by a number of human activities throughout the tropical regions of the world, a situation that has placed more than 100 species and subspecies at great risk. Supported by NCRR Grants RR00167 and RR15311.