| Ekgmowechashala Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Strepsirrhini |
| Infraorder: | † Adapiformes |
| Family: | † Ekgmowechashalidae |
| Genus: | † Ekgmowechashala Macdonald, 1963 [1] |
| Type species | |
| †Ekgmowechashala philotau Macdonald, 1963 [1] | |
| Species | |
Ekgmowechashala (Sioux: "little cat man" [1] [3] ) is an extinct genus of primate belonging to Adapiformes.
With a weight of approximately 5 pounds (2.3 kg), [4] around 1 foot (0.3 m) tall and resembling a lemur, [5] Ekgmowechashala is the only known North American primate of its time; it lived during the late Oligocene and early Miocene. [5] [6] [7]
The classification of this form has long been problematic. [8] It was variously classified as a member of the extinct family Omomyidae (related to tarsiers) and the equally extinct Plagiomenidae (related to colugos), but has been recently reassigned to Adapiformes, the extinct relatives of lemurs and other strepsirrhines. [7] [9] [10] [11] A cladistic analysis by Ni et al. (2016) reaffirmed the adapiform placement of Ekgmowechashala by recovering it as sister group to Bugtilemur , Gatanthropus , and Muangthanhinius in Ekgmowechashalidae. [12]
The shape of its teeth, [13] and their likeness to those of raccoons, indicate that it ate soft fruit provided by the warm forests of the Rocky Mountains during the early Miocene. [14]
Fossil evidence of Ekgmowechashala was discovered on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, an Oglala Sioux Native American reservation in South Dakota. [15] Molars were found in 1981 in the basin of John Day River, and these are in the collection of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture; [16] in the summer of 1997 John Zancanella of the Bureau of Land Management found a lower molar in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. [4] [17] [18]
Ekgmowechashala philotau, known from material in Nebraska and South Dakota, was thought to be the only species of this genus, but material from Oregon has been recently described as a new species, E. zancanellai. A tooth from the Toledo Bend Ranch Local Fauna of far eastern Texas has been assigned to this genus. [19]
The aye-aye is a long-fingered lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar with rodent-like teeth that perpetually grow and a special thin middle finger that they can use to catch grubs and larvae out of tree trunks.
Strepsirrhini or Strepsirhini is a suborder of primates that includes the lemuriform primates, which consist of the lemurs of Madagascar, galagos ("bushbabies") and pottos from Africa, and the lorises from India and southeast Asia. Collectively they are referred to as strepsirrhines. Also belonging to the suborder are the extinct adapiform primates which thrived during the Eocene in Europe, North America, and Asia, but disappeared from most of the Northern Hemisphere as the climate cooled. Adapiforms are sometimes referred to as being "lemur-like", although the diversity of both lemurs and adapiforms does not support this comparison.
Prosimians are a group of primates that includes all living and extinct strepsirrhines, as well as the haplorhine tarsiers and their extinct relatives, the omomyiforms, i.e. all primates excluding the simians. They are considered to have characteristics that are more "primitive" than those of simians.
Haplorhini, the haplorhines or the "dry-nosed" primates is a suborder of primates containing the tarsiers and the simians, as sister of the Strepsirrhini ("moist-nosed"). The name is sometimes spelled Haplorrhini. The simians include catarrhines, and the platyrrhines.
Tarsiiformes are a group of primates that once ranged across Europe, northern Africa, Asia, and North America, but whose extant species are all found in the islands of Southeast Asia. Tarsiers are the only living members of the infraorder; other members of Tarsiidae include the extinct Tarsius eocaenus from the Eocene, and Tarsius thailandicus from the Miocene. Two extinct genera, Xanthorhysis and Afrotarsius, are considered to be close relatives of the living tarsiers, and are generally classified within Tarsiiformes, with the former grouped within family Tarsiidae, and the latter listed as incertae sedis (undefined). Omomyids are generally considered to be extinct relatives, or even ancestors, of the living tarsiers, and are often classified within Tarsiiformes.
Lemuriformes is the sole extant infraorder of primate that falls under the suborder Strepsirrhini. It includes the lemurs of Madagascar, as well as the galagos and lorisids of Africa and Asia, although a popular alternative taxonomy places the lorisoids in their own infraorder, Lorisiformes.
Adapiformes is a group of early primates. Adapiforms radiated throughout much of the northern continental mass, reaching as far south as northern Africa and tropical Asia. They existed from the Eocene to the Miocene epoch. Some adapiforms resembled living lemurs.
Lorisoidea is a superfamily of nocturnal primates found throughout Africa and Asia. Members include the galagos and the lorisids. As strepsirrhines, lorisoids are related to the lemurs of Madagascar and are sometimes included in the infraorder Lemuriformes, although they are also sometimes placed in their own infraorder, LorisiformesGregory, 1915.
A toothcomb is a dental structure found in some mammals, comprising a group of front teeth arranged in a manner that facilitates grooming, similar to a hair comb. The toothcomb occurs in lemuriform primates, treeshrews, colugos, hyraxes, and some African antelopes. The structures evolved independently in different types of mammals through convergent evolution and varies both in dental composition and structure. In most mammals the comb is formed by a group of teeth with fine spaces between them. The toothcombs in most mammals include incisors only, while in lemuriform primates they include incisors and canine teeth that tilt forward at the front of the lower jaw, followed by a canine-shaped first premolar. The toothcombs of colugos and hyraxes take a different form with the individual incisors being serrated, providing multiple tines per tooth.
Darwinius is a genus within the infraorder Adapiformes, a group of basal strepsirrhine primates from the middle Eocene epoch. Its only known species, Darwinius masillae, lived approximately 47 million years ago based on dating of the fossil site.
Adapis is an extinct adapiform primate from the Eocene of Europe. While this genus has traditionally contained five species, recent research has recognized at least six morphotypes that may represent distinct species. Adapis holds the title of the first Eocene primate ever discovered. In 1821, Georges Cuvier, who is considered to be the founding father of paleontology, discovered Adapis in fissure fillings outside of Paris, France. Given its timing and appearance in the fossil record, Cuvier did not recognize the primate affinities of Adapis and first described it as a small extinct pachyderm; only later in the 19th century was Adapis identified as a primate.
Bugtilemur is an extinct genus of Strepsirhine primate belonging to the adapiform family Ekgmowechashalidae.It is represented by only one species, B. mathesoni, which was found in the Chitarwata Formation of Pakistan.
Algeripithecus is an extinct genus of early fossil primate, weighing approximately 65 to 85 grams. Fossils have been found in Algeria dating from 50 to 46 million years ago.
Babakotia is an extinct genus of medium-sized lemur, or strepsirrhine primate, from Madagascar that contains a single species, Babakotia radofilai. Together with Palaeopropithecus, Archaeoindris, and Mesopropithecus, it forms the family Palaeopropithecidae, commonly known as the sloth lemurs. The name Babakotia comes from the Malagasy name for the indri, babakoto, to which it and all other sloth lemurs are closely related. Due to its mix of morphological traits that show intermediate stages between the slow-moving smaller sloth lemurs and the suspensory large sloth lemurs, it has helped determine the relationship between both groups and the closely related and extinct monkey lemurs.
Lemurs, primates belonging to the suborder Strepsirrhini which branched off from other primates less than 63 million years ago, evolved on the island of Madagascar, for at least 40 million years. They share some traits with the most basal primates, and thus are often confused as being ancestral to modern monkeys, apes, and humans. Instead, they merely resemble ancestral primates.
Azibiidae is an extinct family of fossil primate from the late early or early middle Eocene from the Glib Zegdou Formation in the Gour Lazib area of Algeria. They are thought to be related to the living toothcombed primates, the lemurs and lorisoids, although paleoanthropologists such as Marc Godinot have argued that they may be early simians. It includes the genera Azibius and Algeripithecus, the latter of which was originally considered the oldest known simian, not a strepsirrhine.
Plesiopithecus is an extinct genus of early strepsirrhine primate from the late Eocene.
The evolutionary history of the primates can be traced back 57-90 million years. One of the oldest known primate-like mammal species, Plesiadapis, came from North America; another, Archicebus, came from China. Other similar basal primates were widespread in Eurasia and Africa during the tropical conditions of the Paleocene and Eocene. Purgatorius is the genus of the four extinct species believed to be the earliest example of a primate or a proto-primate, a primatomorph precursor to the Plesiadapiformes, dating to as old as 66 million years ago.
Muangthanhinius is a genus of adapiform primate that lived in Asia during the late Eocene.
Palaeohodites is an extinct genus of primate from the Eocene Nadu Formation of China. Living about 35 million years ago during the late Eocene, Palaeohodites belongs to an extinct group of primates known as adapiforms, related to modern day lemurs and lorises. Specifically, this genus is one member of the family Ekgmowechashalidae, known primarily from the Eocene and Oligocene of Asia. Notably, Palaeohodites has been recovered as the sister taxon of Ekgmowechashala, the latest primate known to exist in North America before the arrival of humans at the end of the Pleistocene.
