Quadrumana

Quadrumana is an outdated taxonomic division within the primates. The division of "Quadrumana" from "Bimana" was an attempt at distinguishing Homo sapiens from the rest of the great apes. For a century, modern science has considered humans as part of the great apes.

Quadrumana is Latin for "four-handed ones", which was a term used for Lemurs, monkeys and apes since their feet are prehensile and similar to hands. It was not clear at the time that Tarsiers belonged as well in this group, as sister of the monkeys (incl. apes). A similar term, quadrumanous, is used to describe locomotion involving both using feet and using hands to grasp at branches. Bimana is Latin for "two-handed ones".

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 an order.

However, the many affinities between humans and other primates – and especially the great apes – made it clear that the distinction made no scientific sense. In 1863, however, Thomas Henry Huxley in his Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature demonstrated that the higher apes might fairly be included in Bimana. Charles Darwin wrote, in The Descent of Man (1871):