The order was established by Carl Linnaeus in the first edition of his book Systema Naturae (1735) for genera Homo (humans), Simia (monkeys and apes in general) and Bradypus (sloths).[4] The taxon is notable for the history of human taxonomy as the first to combine apes (Linnaeus' Simia) and humans under the same clade.[5]
In the 1758 edition of the same book, Linnaeus discarded this name and began to use the word Primates, which has replaced Anthropomorpha completely. A dissertation on the Anthropomorpha was published by Linnaeus' student Christian Emmanuel Hoppius in 1760.[6]
The name is no longer considered valid, as the animals that were included within Anthropomorpha are now believed to belong to multiple clades. For example, two-toed sloths were included within Anthropomorpha,[7] but are now considered to be in the family Choloepodidae, which is not closely related to the primates.[8]Comte de Buffon[year needed] correctly rejected the combination of sloths and primates within the same order.[7]
^Porter, N., ed. (1913). "Anthropomorpha". Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. G & C. Merriam.
^Linnaeus, C. (1735). Systema naturae sive regna tria Naturae systematice proposita per classes, ordines, genera, & species. apud Theodorum Haak, Lugduni Batavorum. pp. s.p.
^Sven Horstadius, Linnaeus, animals and man, Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 6 (December 1974), 269–275 (p. 273).
