The Tarsier Infraorder

Suborder: Prosimii | Infraorder: Tarsiiformes | Superfamily: Tarsioidea | Family: Tarsiidae

The Tarsiiformes Infraorder contains only one family, Tarsiidae, and one genus, Tarsius. Tarsiers share characteristics of both prosimians and anthropoids. In the classification system used in these pages, tarsiers fall into the Prosimii suborder and in another they are placed in the suborder of Haplorrhini, along with the anthropoids. Like other prosimians, they are nocturnal? and have grooming claws. However, they resemble anthropoids in that they lack a tapetum lucidem? and their eye sockets are completely enclosed with bone.

Tarsiers are found in Southeast Asia in Indonesia and the Philippines. They have very large eyes, each one bigger than their entire brain. Tarsiers are faunivorous? and hunt at night. The hands and feet of tarsiers have wide pads at the end of each relatively long digit which enables them to cling tightly to branches. They are arboreal but will occassionally hop along the ground.

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