Why do monkeys have long arms?

Question

Please be as technical as possible, its for a first year uni presentation. Though any suggestions would be helpful lol!

Answer 1

Monkeys are arboreal brachiators, tree-dwellers who move about through the branches. They need long arms to move through the trees, swinging from branch to branch. Gibbons are apes, not monkeys, but they also have long arms especially adapted for this, and are arboreal brachiators, too, so this feature is an adaptation for that kind of movement.

Answer 2

The answer really has to start with the fact that having long arms was a source of advantage at the time that this feature evolved. Most of the answers describe what monkeys do with their arms now and that is where you have to qualify your answer. To illustrate the point, humans don't walk on two legs so they can play football. The logic must be that we observe what monkeys do with their long arms now, make an assumption or guess that this is what they used long arms for when the feature evolved and they go on to explain why this contributed to the survival of the fittest at that time.

Answer 3

Try the Google search below and then read all the relevant papers.This should give you a grounding into the topic.From a brief scan of the abstracts I thinks this should help you improve the initial search ie make it more relevant?
If you live in the South of England go to Monkey World, or watch the TV docs. Illustrate your presentation with photographs from the web or your own observations.
( wish I had a degree its all too easy these days )

Answer 4

One day a monkey with normal arms was walking along the beach in puerto rico. He was on honeymoon with his bride, a tortoise.

They used to enjoy running to the lapping waves, then running back giggling.

About 3/4 days into their holiday of a life time, monkey was sitting by the pool at the hotel complex when he saw a tiger hurtling towards him. Quick as a flash, he leap from his seat and started running. He noticed his new bride was sunbathing by the pool. As he tried to sweep her up into his arms, he didn't realise that she had been super-glued to the floor by those pesky Mcdougal twins.

Basically his arms stretched and they have never been the same since.

Answer 5

All monkeys have long arms and legs. These help them climb, jump, and run. Monkeys usually walk and run on all fours. They have large eyes to help them see long distances and to tell if the food they are going to eat is ripe. Most monkeys that live in trees have longer tails than those who live on the ground.

Just for info:
Monkeys vary in size. The smallest is the pygmy marmoset. It is only about 6 inches long. The mandrill is one of the largest monkeys. It may grown as long as 32 inches.

Answer 6

Four theories for you :

A: Because if they didn't they would get a bad back from bending over to scrape their knuckles on the ground.

B: Their arms get stretched from all the tree-swinging they do.

C: Darwin's theory of natural selection (look it up): they must be a beneficial reason for having long arms (See theory A above).

D: Creationist approach: Because the Monkey-God says so.

Answer 7

The posture of monkeys requires some support so the arms are longer for the neccesary support.

Answer 8

why do animals and creatures have any features - they develop them through evolution to suit the situation and life requirements that they need to survive

in the case on monkeys they usually have to get from tree to tree easily and so maybe the momentum from having long arms achieves that

Answer 9

They have long arms because they swing in trees.They needed long arms to catch high branches to escape from predators.If you think about it, we have long arms too because we are in the same genus.

Answer 10

imagine a monkey with little arms

now imagine him swinging through the trees, would be very difficult

;-)

would look funny though

Jamie