Strepsirrhini

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A suborder of primates characterized by a moist, grooved nose, including lemurs, lorises and galagos
2. The primate group whose members have wet rhinariums and a toothcomb, comprising lemurs, lorises and bushbabies
3. A taxonomic division of primates distinguished by a damp nose and a grooming comb of teeth, such as the lemurs

Etymology: Strepsirrhini comes from Greek "streptos" meaning "twisted" or "bent," and "rhinos" meaning "nose." Thomas Huxley, the English biologist, introduced the name in 1868 to group the lemurs, lorises, and their relatives, whose noses are wet and whose nostrils are bent back, unlike the dry, pointed-nosed primates that include monkeys, apes, and humans. The name is a descriptive coinage rather than an ancient term. Ancient Greek had no word for a primate group, so the classical roots were combined deliberately in the nineteenth century to describe a feature visible in the animals' faces. The contrasting group, Haplorrhini, uses the Greek "haplos," meaning "simple," to name the flatter-nosed primates, so the two names form a matched pair built on the same anatomical observation.