1. Overview of the Fossil Primates
Chapter 9
Overview of the Fossil Primates

2. Map Showing Location of the Fossil Primates

3. Map Showing Location of the Fossil Primates

4. Geologic Timescale

5. Seven Epochs of the Cenozoic (65.5 - 0 mya)
Paleocene (65 mya; primate-like mammals, aka Plesiadapiformes)
Eocene (55.8 mya; first true primates, Prosimians)
Oligocene (33 mya; early Catarrhines, precursors to monkeys and apes, emerge)
Miocene (23 mya; monkeys and apes emerge, first humanlike creatures appear)
Pliocene (5.3 mya; early humans diversify)
Pleistocene (1.8 mya; early Homo develops)
Holocene (0.01 mya; the present epoch)

6. General Prosimian Characteristics
Smaller body size.
Longer snouts with greater emphasis on smell.
Eye sockets not completely enclosed in bone.
Dental comb.
Small simple premolars.

7. General Anthropoid Characteristics
Nails instead of claws on all digits
Loss of the artery running through the middle ear bone
Fusion of the two sides of the mandible to form one bone
Fusion of the two sides of the frontal bone
Larger brain (in absolute terms and relative to body weight)

8. General Anthropoid Characteristics
Generally larger body size
Shorter snouts with greater emphasis on vision
Back of eye socket formed by bony plate
Less specialized dentition, as seen in absence of dental comb and some other features
Larger and more complex premolars
Derived square-shaped molars with new cusp

9. General Prosimian Characteristics
Primitive triangle-shaped molars.
Grooming claw.
Artery running through the middle ear bone.
Unfused mandible.
Unfused frontal bone.
Smaller brain size relative to body size.

10. Plesiadapiforms

11. Plesiadapiforms Plesiadapis features: Long tail Agile limbs
Claws, not nails
Rodent-like jaws and teeth
Eyes at side of head
Long snout
No post-orbital bar

12. Carpolestids North American genera Elphidotarsius Carpodaptes
Carpolestes
Nearly complete skeleton of Carpolestes discovered in the Clarks Fork Basin of Wyoming. (a) Carpolestes as it was discovered. (b) Reconstructed skeleton (c) Artist’s rendering.

13. Carpolestes
Nearly complete skeleton of Carpolestes discovered in the Clarks Fork Basin of Wyoming. (a) Carpolestes as it was discovered. (b) Reconstructed skeleton (c) Artist’s rendering.

14. Eocene Primates
Fossil primates from the Eocene display distinctive primate features.
The first unequivocal primates occur about 50 mya.
There are two main groups identified:
Adapids which are usually considered to be ancestral to modern Strepsirhines
Omomyids which are (mostly) considered to be early Haplorhines

15. Adapids
Northarctus
Adapis
Necrolemur
Tarsius

16. Northarctus

17. Adapis

18. Omymids -Necrolemur and Tarsius

19. Madagascar Primates

20. Origins of Antrhopoids

21. Oligocene Primates
The Oligocene (34–23 m.y.a.) yielded fossil remains of several species of early anthropoids.
By the early Oligocene, continental drift had separated the New World from the Old World.
It has been suggested that late in the Eocene or very early in the Oligocene, the first anthropoids arose in Africa and reached South America by “rafting” over the water separation on drifting chunks of vegetation.

22. Oligocene Primates

23. Apidium

24. Parapithecus
Parapithecus belongs to the group of Fayum anthropoids that are most closely related to the ancestry of New World monkeys.

25. Aegyptopithecus Skull of Aegyptopithecus.
This genus has been proposed as the ancestor of both Old World monkeys and hominoids.

26. Homunculus
Skull of Homunculus, a middle Miocene descendant of the earliest platyrrhine radiation.

27. Victoriapithecus
Skull of Victoriapithecus, the first Old World monkey.

28. New World Monkey vs. Old World Monkey Characteristics
New World Monkeys
Sideways facing nostrils
Ring-like ear hole with no tube
Dental formula of
Grasping tail
Distribution: Mexico and South America
Old World Monkeys
Downward facing nostrils
Tube-like ear hole
Dental formula of
Ischial callosities
Distribution: Africa, southern Asia and Japan

29. New World Primates

30. Rafting Hypotheses

31. Miocene Primates - Proconsul

32. Pliopithecus Pliopithecus, from the middle Miocene of Europe.
The pliopithecoids were the first catarrhines to leave Africa.
Since this skull is of a female, no sagittal crest is present, though strong temporal lines indicate the individual enjoyed a diet of hard plant items.

33. Dryopithecus Skull of Dryopithecus, the earliest European ape.
The left side is reconstructed as a mirror image of the complete right side.

34. Ouranopithecus Ouranopithecus, possible ancestor of the African apes.
Notice that the face shares many features with living African great apes, including large browridges and a wide distance between the eye orbits.

35. Gigantopithecus
An artist’s rendering of Gigantopithecus enjoying a meal of the tasty, but tough, tropical fruit known as durian.

36. Simplified Chart