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© Copyright 1999, Jim Loy
In Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan books, we find animals called apes (seemingly a separate species), which seem to be similar to Gorillas. Instead, ape (also called anthropoids, as they are much like humans) is a fairly wide category of primates without tails, which include Lesser Apes (Siamang, Gibbon) and Greater Apes (Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Orangutan). These include quite a few species. Calling any of these animals a monkey (as some people do) is just a good way to show that you don't know what you are talking about.
Monkeys are divided into three families, Simioids [old world monkeys (including baboons) in Africa and Asia, and Gibraltar], Ceboids (new world monkeys in South and Central America), and Hapaloids (Marmosets in South and Central America). A few of the simioids are sometimes called apes. Macaques are sometimes called Barbary apes. And the Black Ape is one of the species of Simioids.
The order Primates also includes Prosimians or Lemurs (mostly in Madagascar), which include lorises and bush babies, and Tarsioids or Tarsiers. Humans (Homo sapiens) are classified at the top end of the Primates order.
I once saw a cartoon, maybe by Sidney Harris, in which one ape (or monkey?) says to another, "We are primates. That means we're number one." That is exactly what primate means, from Latin primas, meaning "first."