How many monkey species do not have tails, and what species are they?

Question

I know that the easiest way to tell someone how to distinguish monkeys from apes is to tell them that monkeys have tails and apes don't, but I know there are some species of monkeys that don't have a tail either and I would like to know which ones they are, thanks.

I'm not asking for every monkey species in the world, just ones that anyone knows of that appear to have no tails.

Answer 1

Well, first let me clarify that all the members of order Primates are collectively called "monkeys", while "apes" are a subset within the order, so these terms are a little confusing.
However, I understand what you mean.

There are several primates with short or non-evident tails, including of course us and the other higher apes.

Among the "lower" primates, the loris and pottos (family Loridae) have a short or atrophied tail.
Some macaques (family Cercopithecidae) have a short but visible tail.
And of course the apes: gibbons (family Hylobatidae), orangutans, chimps and gorillas (traditionally lumped in a family Pongidae, but nowadays increasingly recognized as members of our own family, Hominidae).

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Thanks to Jeff Sadler for the correction. Indeed, I'm not a native English speaker, and I was using the definition of monkey as equivalent of the Spanish translation.
I will leave my original answer and rectify here: if humans, anthropoid apes, tarsiers and prosimians are excluded from the definition of "monkey", then all monkeys have tails. However, only the New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) have prehensile tails.
Sorry for the confusion!

Answer 2

Well all monkeys have tails. It is just that some are extremely short. Snow Monkeys are a good example of that, they are still monkeys, still have tails, just very short.

As far as listing the species with short tails, not gonna happen. Why? There are about 250 species of monkeys in the world. Far too many to list.

Answer 3

calemicita is incorrect about all primates collectively being called monkeys. There are only two groups of monkeys--old world (family Cercopithecidae) and new world which has now been changed to the parvorder (Platyrrhini). This was once considered one family. The other groups of primates are lemurs and apes as well as the primitive bush babies and such.

This may be a variation in word definition, but this is the US definition. Or I should say was 15 to 20 years ago when I was in college. Sometimes these definitions get changed but to my knowledge this one has not. I will say that the word monkey has no true taxanomic meaning.

Anyway a few monkeys such as the drill and mandrill do not have much at all in the way of tails.

Answer 4

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RE:
How many monkey species do not have tails, and what species are they?
I know that the easiest way to tell someone how to distinguish monkeys from apes is to tell them that monkeys have tails and apes don't, but I know there are some species of monkeys that don't have a tail either and I would like to know which ones they are, thanks.

Answer 5

Do All Monkeys Have Tails

Answer 6

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