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The simians (infraorder Simiiformes) are the "higher primates". Familiar to most people are the Old World monkeys and apes, including humans and the New World monkeys. Simians tend to be larger than the "lower primates" or prosimians.

The simians are sister to the tarsiers: together they make up the haplorhines. The radiation occurred about 60 million years ago during the Cenozoic era.

40 million years ago, simians from Afro-Arabia colonized South America (by what route is not known). This gave rise to the New World monkeys. The remaining simians (catarrhines) split 25 million years ago into Old World monkeys and apes.