Apes (Hominoidea) are a branch of Old World tailless anthropoid primates native to Africa and Southeast Asia. They are the sister group of Old World monkeys, together forming the catarrhine clade. They are distinguished from other primates by a wider degree of freedom of motion at the shoulder joint as evolved by the influence of brachiation. There are two extant branches of the superfamily Hominoidea: the gibbons, or lesser apes; and the hominids, or great apes.