Quadrumana and Bimana form an obsolete division of the primates: the Quadrumana ("four-handed ones") being primates with opposable digits (thumbs) on all four limbs, and the Bimana ("two-handed ones") being those with opposable digits on the forelimbs only, this latter group contains humans only. The attempted division of "Quadrumana" from "Bimana" form a stage in the long campaign to find a secure way of distinguishing Homo sapiens from the rest of the great apes, a distinction that was culturally essential. Families 15, See classification A primate (L. prima, first) is any member of the biological order Primates, the group that contains all lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans. ... Binomial name Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Subspecies Homo sapiens idaltu† Homo sapiens sapiens Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin for wise man or thinking man) under the family Hominidae (the great apes). ... Genera Subfamily Ponginae Pongo - Orangutans Gigantopithecus (extinct) Sivapithecus (extinct) Subfamily Homininae Gorilla - Gorillas Pan - Chimpanzees Homo - Humans Paranthropus (extinct) Australopithecus (extinct) Sahelanthropus (extinct) Ardipithecus (extinct) Kenyanthropus (extinct) Pierolapithecus (extinct) (tentative) The Hominids (Hominidae) are a biological family which includes humans, extinct species of humanlike creatures and the other great apes...

The division was proposed by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in the first edition of his Manual of Natural History (1779) and taken up by other naturalists, most notably Georges Cuvier. Some elevated the distinction to the level of order. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (May 11, 1752 - January 22, 1840) was a German physiologist and anthropologist. ... Georges Cuvier Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (August 23, 1769 - May 13, 1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist. ... Scientific classification or biological classification refers to how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ...

However, the many affinities between humans and other primates — and especially the great apes — made it clear that the distinction made no scientific sense. Charles Darwin wrote, in The Descent of Man (1871): In his lifetime Charles Darwin gained international fame as an influential scientist examining controversial topics. ... The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex was a book on evolutionary theory by British naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871. ...

The greater number of naturalists who have taken into consideration the whole structure of man, including his mental faculties, have followed Blumenbach and Cuvier, and have placed man in a separate Order, under the title of the Bimana, and therefore on an equality with the orders of the Quadrumana, Carnivora, etc. Recently many of our best naturalists have recurred to the view first propounded by Linnaeus, so remarkable for his sagacity, and have placed man in the same Order with the Quadrumana, under the title of the Primates. The justice of this conclusion will be admitted: for in the first place, we must bear in mind the comparative insignificance for classification of the great development of the brain in man, and that the strongly-marked differences between the skulls of man and the Quadrumana (lately insisted upon by Bischoff, Aeby, and others) apparently follow from their differently developed brains. In the second place, we must remember that nearly all the other and more important differences between man and the Quadrumana are manifestly adaptive in their nature, and relate chiefly to the erect position of man; such as the structure of his hand, foot, and pelvis, the curvature of his spine, and the position of his head.

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (May 11, 1752 - January 22, 1840) was a German physiologist and anthropologist. ... Georges Cuvier Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (August 23, 1769 - May 13, 1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist. ... Families Ailuridae Amphicyonidae† Canidae Felidae Herpestidae Hyaenidae Mephitidae Miacidae† Mustelidae Nandiniidae Nimravidae† Odobenidae Otariidae Phocidae Procyonidae Ursidae Viverravidae† Viverridae The diverse order Carnivora (car-niv o-ra)(L. caro, flesh, + vorare, to devour) includes over 260 placental mammals. ... Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as (help· info), and in English usually under the Latinized name Carolus Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), the name with which his publications were signed, was a Swedish botanist and physician who laid the foundations for the modern scheme...

External links

• [http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/comm/Books/Timbs.html Excerpts from the Royal Society Yearbook, 1861, give the context of urgent discussions of features distinguishing humans from "Quadrumana", in the wake of Darwin's Origin of the Species
• Carter Blake, in Edinburgh Review (April 1863): Use of "Quadrumana" in an essay beginning "The disputes with regard to the precise affinity and relations of man to the lower animals have now excited so much acrimony, and have assumed such proportions, that we feel at length compelled to offer an opinion upon this controversy."