Home › G › Gibbon (Genus of tailless anthropoid)

Gibbon (Genus of tailless anthropoid)

a genus of tailless anthropoid apes, natives of the East Indies. They are nearly allied to the orangs and chimpanzees, but are of more slender form, and their arms so long as almost to reach the ground when they are placed in an erect posture; there are also naked callosities on the buttocks.

In this respect they differ from the other anthropoid apes and are allied to some of the catarrhini; in other respects also the gibbons are the lowest among the anthropoid apes, and connect them with the catarrhini. The gibbons are inhabitants of forests, their long arms enabling them to swing themselves from bough to bough. They cannot, however, move with ease or rapidity on the ground. The conformation of the hinder extremities adds to their difficulty in this, while it increases their adaptation to a life among the branches of trees, the soles of the feet being much turned inward. None of the gibbons are of large size. There are some 8 or 10 species. The common gibbon, or lar gibbon, is found in some parts of India, and in more E. regions. The active gibbon, found in Sumatra, is particularly remarkable for the power which it displays of flinging itself from one tree to another.