4506 x 3980 px | 38,2 x 33,7 cm | 15 x 13,3 inches | 300dpi
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Tarsiers are prosimian primates of the genus Tarsius, a monotypic genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all the species living today are found in the islands of Southeast Asia. The phylogenetic position of extant tarsiers within the order Primates has been debated for much of the past century, and tarsiers have alternately been classified with strepsirrhine primates in the suborder Prosimii, or as the sister group to the simians (=Anthropoidea) in the infraorder Haplorrhini. Analysis of SINE insertions, a type of macromutation to the DNA, is argued to offer very persuasive evidence for the monophyly of Haplorrhini, where other lines of evidence, such as DNA sequence data, had remained ambiguous. Thus, some systematists argue that the debate is conclusively settled in favor of a monophyletic Haplorrhini. At a lower level, it has been indicated that the tarsiers, currently all placed in the genus Tarsius, actually should be placed in two (a Sulawesi and a Philippine-Western group) or three separate genera (a Sulawesi, Philippine and Western group). Species level taxonomy is complex, with morphology often being of limited use compared to vocalizations. Several "vocal morphs" may represent undescribed taxa (such as North Sulawesi "T. tarsier", and a tarsier from the Togian Islands), as may also be the case for a number of poorly known isolated populations (such as the Basilan, Leyte and Dinagat populations of the T. syrichta group, and tarsiers on Siau Island that tentatively have been assigned to T. sangirensis). Further confusion exists over the validity of certain names. Among others, the widely used T. dianae has been shown to be a junior synonym of T. dentatus, and comparably T. spectrum is now considered a junior synonym of T. tarsier. On the contrary T. tarsier has been considered a junior synonym of T.
