Macaque which are Asian except for the Barbary Macaque; including some of the monkeys best known to non-zoologists, such as the rhesus macaque ("M. mulatta"), and the barbary macaque, a colony of which lives on the Rock of Gibraltar in Southern Europe. Macaques are robust primates whose arms and legs are about the same in length. The fur of these animals is typically varying shades of brown or black and their muzzles are rounded in profile with nostrils on the upper surface. The tail varies among each species, which can be long, moderate, short or totally absent. " "Although several species
Rhesus macaque significance because the macaque is used as an experimental model of the human immune system. In humans, the preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) gene family is expanded. It is actively expressed in cancers, but normally is testis-specific, possibly involved in spermatogenesis. The PRAME family has 26 members on human chromosome 1. In the macaque, it has eight, and has been very simple and stable for millions of years. The PRAME family arose in translocations in the common mouse-primate ancestor 85 million years ago, and is expanded on mouse chromosome 4. DNA microarrays are used in macaque research. For example,