A suborder of primates characterized by well-developed brains and walking in an upright position: Anthropoidea include human beings (family "Hominidae"); as well as, monkeys and apes.

The Anthropoidea are distinguished from the lower primates, which include lemurs (arboreal primates with pointed noses and typically a long tail, found only in Madagascar), lorises (small, slow-moving nocturnal primates with short or absent tails) living in dense vegetation in South Asia) and tarsiers (small insectivorous, tree-dwelling, nocturnal primate with large eyes, a long tufted tail, and long hind limbs, native to the islands of Southeast Asia).