Suborder of
order Primates that includes the
lemurs,
pottos,
lorises, and
galagos.
Prosimians retain many
ancestral traits including a
postorbital bar, no
fusion of the
mandible or the
frontal bones, a
grooming claw on the second
digit of the hind
foot, and other traits suggestive of the
primates of the Eocene; in addition
prosimians have a
bicornuate uterus, two
pairs of
mammary glands, and usually the production of more than one
infant. This
suborder is considered a
grade and many, if not most,
primatologists now subscribe to the placing the
members of this
group into the alternative
suborder Strepsirhini (excluding the
tarsiers that historically have been included in the prosimians). Many paleontologists found this latter
group to be unacceptable because the defining
features are soft
tissue structures that are not discernible in
fossils.
Cf. Anthropoidea.