The Euarchonta are a proposed grandorder of mammals: the order Scandentia (treeshrews), and its sister Primatomorpha mirorder, containing the Dermoptera or colugos and the primates.
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.
Purgatorius is a genus of seven extinct eutherian species typically 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. The first remains were reported in 1965, from what is now eastern Montana's Tullock Formation, specifically at Purgatory Hill in deposits believed to be about 63 million years old, and at Harbicht Hill in the lower Paleocene section of the Hell Creek Formation. Both locations are in McCone County, Montana.
Plesiadapis is one of the oldest known primate-like mammal genera which existed about 58–55 million years ago in North America and Europe. Plesiadapis means "near-Adapis", which is a reference to the adapiform primate of the Eocene period, Adapis. Plesiadapis tricuspidens, the type specimen, is named after the three cusps present on its upper incisors.
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.
Plesiadapidae is a family of plesiadapiform mammals related to primates known from the Paleocene and Eocene of North America, Europe, and Asia. Plesiadapids were abundant in the late Paleocene, and their fossils are often used to establish the ages of fossil faunas.
Purgatoriidae is a basal plesiadapiform family that includes, Purgatorius and Ursolestes. Purgatoriids are thought to represent the earliest members of the Plesiadapiformes and to be their ancestors – as well as primates.
The Santiago Formation is a geologic formation in Orange and northwestern San Diego County, California. The siltstones, mudstones and sandstones of the formation preserve fossils of Walshina esmaraldensis and Diegoaelurus vanvalkenburghae, dating back to the Late Eocene to Late Oligocene periods.
Marcgodinotius is a genus of adapiform primate that lived in Asia during the early Eocene. It is a monotypic genus, the only species being Marcgodinotius indicus. Another adapiform primate Suratius robustus was found in the same horizon. Anthrasimias may be a junior synonym of Marcgodinotius and Anthrasimias gujaratensis a junior synonym of Marcgodinotius indicus.
Acidomomys is a plesiadapiform mammal of the family Paromomyidae, a precursor to the primates or very closely related to them.
Paromomyidae is a family of mammals that may include the earliest primates, or taxa closely related to them.
Microsyops is a plesiadapiform primate found in Middle Eocene in North America. It is in the family Microsyopidae, a plesiadapiform family characterized by distinctive lanceolate lower first incisors. It appears to have had a more developed sense of smell than other early primates. It is believed to have eaten fruit, and its fossils show the oldest known dental cavities in a mammal.
Micromomyidae (Micromomids) is a family of extinct plesiadapiform mammals that include some of the earliest known primates. The family includes five genera that lived from the Paleocene epoch into the early Eocene epoch.
Ignacius is a genus of extinct mammal from the early Cenozoic era. This genus is present in the fossil record from around 62-33 Ma. The earliest known specimens of Ignacius come from the Torrejonian of the Fort Union Formation, Wyoming and the most recent known specimens from Ellesmere Island in northern Canada. Ignacius is one of ten genera within the family Paromomyidae, the longest living family of any plesiadapiforms, persisting for around 30 Ma during the Paleocene and Eocene epochs. The analyses of postcranial fossils by paleontologists suggest that members of the family Paromomyidae, including the genus Ignacius, most likely possessed adaptations for arboreality.
Bownomomys was an early marmoset-like primate that lived in North America during the Early Eocene epoch, about 56-50 million years ago.
Chiromyoides is a small plesiadapid primatomorph that is known for its unusually robust upper and lower incisors, deep dentary, and comparatively small cheek teeth. Species of Chiromyoides are known from the middle Tiffanian through late Clarkforkian North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMA) of western North America, and from late Paleocene deposits in the Paris Basin, France.
Euprimateformes are group of plesiadapiformes that includes euprimates and plesiadapoids, proposed by Bloch et al. in 2007.
Navajovius is an extinct genus of plesiadapiforms that lived during the Paleocene epoch. Plesiadapiforms were small, arboreal mammals that are theorized to be either closely related to primates or dermopterans. Navajovius has only been documented from localities within North America. This genus was officially named in 1921 by Walter Granger and William Matthew and the type specimen is housed at the American Museum of Natural History.
Saxonella is a genus of extinct primate from the Paleocene Epoch, 66–56 Ma. The genus is present in the fossil record from around ~62–57 Ma. Saxonella has been found in fissure fillings in Walbeck, Germany as well as in the Paskapoo Formation in Alberta, Canada. Saxonella is one of five families within the superfamily Plesiadapoidae, which appears in the fossil record from the mid Paleocene to the early Eocene. Analyses of molars by paleontologists suggest that Saxonella most likely had a folivorous diet.
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.
