The guenons (, ) are Old World monkeys of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Cercopithecus'' (). Not all members of this genus have the word "guenon" in their common names; also, because of changes in

scientific classification image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

, some monkeys in other genera may have common names that include the word "guenon". Nonetheless, the use of the term guenon for monkeys of this genus is widely accepted. All members of the genus are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

, and most are forest monkeys. Many of the species are quite local in their ranges, and some have even more local

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

. Many are threatened or endangered because of

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

. The species currently placed in the genus ''

Chlorocebus ''Chlorocebus'' is a genus of medium-sized primates from the family of Old World monkeys. Six species are currently recognized, although some people classify them all as a single species with numerous subspecies. Either way, they make up the enti ...

'', such as vervet monkeys and green monkeys, were formerly considered as a single species in this genus, ''Cercopithecus aethiops''. In the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

, the word "guenon" is apparently of French origin. In French, ''guenon'' was the common name for all species and individuals, both males and females, from the genus ''Cercopithecus''. In all other monkey and apes species, the French word ''guenon'' designates only the females. The three species such as the L'hoest's monkey, Preuss's monkey and the sun-tailed monkey were formerly included in the genus and now listed in a different genus '' Allochrocebus''

Classification

The genus ''Cercopithecus'', derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

terms (''kérkos'', “tail”) and (''píthēkos'', "ape"), was named by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1758.

Species list

Hybrids

The red-tailed monkey (''Cercopithecus ascanius'') is known to hybridize with the blue monkey (''C. mitis'') in several locations in the wild in Africa.

References

Sources

External links

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Primate Info Net ''Cercopithecus'' Factsheets
{{Taxonbar, from=Q255571 01 Primates of Africa Cercopithecini Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus