Fauna of South Africa
The largest primate in the region, excluding humans, is the chacma baboon. A true generalist, it is found in virtually all habitats in South Africa. The other primates in the region are the vervet monkey and the Samango monkey. They are mainly frugivores, although they are true opportunists and may take eggs and nestlings from bird nests.
List of fossil primates
The order Primates, established by Linnaeus in 1758, includes humans and their immediate ancestors. However, contrarily to the common opinion, most primates do not have especially large brains. Brain size is a derived character, which only appeared with genus "Homo", and was lacking in the first hominid. In fact, hominid encephalization quotient is only 1.5 Ma more recent than that of some dolphin species. The encephalization quotient of some cetaceans is therefore higher than that of most primates, including the nearest relatives of humans, such as "Australopithecus".