The clade Strepsirrhini (New Latin, from Greek strepsis, "a turning" and the stem of rhis, "nose")[2] is one of the two suborders of primates. Madagascar's only primates (apart from humans) are strepsirrhines, and others can be found in southeast Asia and Africa. The scientist given credit for the name, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, named it for the retention of the rhinarium, a trait characterized as a wet nose, generally present in mammals. In his catalog of features attributed to the Strepsirrhini, he lists "Les narines terminales et sinueuses" (translated "sinuous, twisted or curley nostrils").[3][Note 1] Strepsirrhines are often characterized by their wet nose, but the etymology of their group name refers to the sinuous openings of the rhinarium's nostrils.
Strepsirrhines are considered by primatologists to have more evolutionarily ancestral features and adaptations than their haplorrhine ("dry-nose", in Greek "simple nose") cousins. Their moist nose is connected to the upper lip, which is connected to the gum, giving them a limit to the facial expressions they can manage. Their brain to body ratio tends to be smaller, indicating a lower intelligence. Their brain's olfactory lobes are larger, lending to the notion that they have a stronger reliance on smell. Their snouts are generally elongated, giving them a dog-like appearance, although this is true of some monkeys, too. Strepsirrhines have a postorbital bar, unlike haplorrhines. The strepsirrhines have also retained the ability to enzymatically manufacture vitamin C, which has been lost by all the haplorrhines, including the Tarsiidae.[4]
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