Blood type (non-human) blood. Two categories of blood groups, human-type and simian-type, have been found in apes and monkeys, and can be tested by methods established for grouping human blood. The rhesus system is named after the rhesus monkey, following experiments by Karl Landsteiner and Alexander S. Wiener, which showed that rabbits, when immunised with rhesus monkey red cells, produce an antibody that also agglutinates the red blood cells of many humans. Data on blood groups of chimpanzees, baboons, and macaques. Two complex chimpanzee blood group systems, V-A-B-D and R-C-E-F systems, proved to be counterparts of the human MNS and Rh-Hr blood group
Rh blood group system factor is not identical to the rhesus monkey factor; but by then, "Rhesus Group" and like terms were already in widespread, worldwide use. Thus, notwithstanding it is a misnomer, the term survives (e.g. "rhesus blood group system", and the obsolete terms "rhesus factor", " rhesus positive", and "rhesus negative" - all three which actually refer specifically and "only" to the Rh D factor; and, thus, are misleading when unmodified). Contemporary practice is to use "Rh" as a term of art instead of "Rhesus"; viz. "Rh Group," "Rh factors," "Rh D," etc. The first rhesus blood type was discovered in 1937