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, and also 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. Other fossil primates, which include Microchoeridae, Carpolestidae, and Eosimiidae, have been included in this classification, although the fossil evidence is debated. Eosimiidae has also been classified under the infraorder Simiiformes. Likewise, Carpolestidae is often classified within the order Plesiadapiformes, a very close, extinct relative of primates. These conflicting classifications lie at the heart of the debate over early primate evolution. Even the placement of Tarsiiformes within suborder Haplorhini is still debated.
The simians, anthropoids or higher primates are an infraorder of primates containing the parvorders Platyrrhini and Catarrhini, the latter of which consists of the superfamilies Cercopithecoidea and Hominoidea.
Creodonta is an extinct, possibly polyphyletic order of carnivorous mammals that lived from the Paleocene to the Miocene epochs. Because they both possess carnassial teeth, creodonts and carnivorans were once thought to have shared a common ancestor, but given that different teeth are involved in making up the carnassials, this appears to be a case of evolutionary convergence. Carnassials are also known in other mammal clades, such as in the extinct bat Necromantis.
Plesiadapis is one of the oldest known primate-like mammal genera which existed about 55–58 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.
Bisonalveus is an extinct genus of shrew-like mammals that were presumably ground-dwelling and fed on plants and insects. Bisonalveus fossils have been discovered in the upper Great Plains region of North America, including sites in modern-day Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana, and Alberta. The fossils have been dated to 60 million years ago, during the Tiffanian North American Stage of the Palaeocene epoch. Bisonalveus is the last known genus of the Pentacodontinae sub-family to have arisen, replacing the genus Coriphagus in the early Tiffanian. Bisonalveus itself appears to have gone extinct by the middle Tiffanian.
Pelycodus is an extinct genus of adapiform primate that lived during the early Eocene (Wasatchian) period in Europe and North America, particularly Wyoming and New Mexico. It is very closely related to Cantius and may even be its subgenus. It may also have given rise to the Middle Eocene Uintan primate Hesperolemur, although this is controversial. From mass estimates based on the first molar, the two species, P. jarrovii and P. danielsae, weighed 4.5 kg and 6.3 kg respectively and were frugivores with an arboreal, quadrupedal locomotion.
Eosimiidae is the family of possibly extinct primates believed to be the earliest simians.
Philip Dean Gingerich is a paleontologist and educator. He is Professor Emeritus of Geology, Biology, and Anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He directed the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan (UMMP) from 1981-2010. His research focus is in vertebrate paleontology, especially the Paleocene-Eocene transition and early Cenozoic mammals. His primary research focus is in the origin of modern orders of mammals and he is a leading expert on the evolution of primates and whales. Gingerich was among the experts who analyzed the skeleton of Darwinius masillae.
Parapithecidae is an extinct family of primates which lived in the Eocene and Oligocene periods in Egypt. Eocene fossils from Myanmar are sometimes included in the family in addition. They showed certain similarities in dentition to Condylarthra, but had short faces and jaws shaped like those of tarsiers. They are part of the superfamily Parapithecoidea, perhaps equally related to Ceboidea and Cercopithecoidea plus Hominoidea - but the placement of Parapithecoidea is substantially uncertain.
This article records new taxa of fossil mammals of every kind that have been described during the year 2012, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleontology of mammals that occurred in the year 2012.
The Wasatch Formation (Tw) is an extensive highly fossiliferous geologic formation stretching across several basins in Idaho, Montana Wyoming, Utah and western Colorado. It preserves fossils dating back to the Early Eocene period. The formation defines the Wasatchian or Lostcabinian, a period of time used within the NALMA classification, but the formation ranges in age from the Clarkforkian to Bridgerian.
The Conglomérat de Cernay is a geologic formation in Champagne-Ardenne, northern France. It preserves fossils dating back to the Thanetian stage of the Paleocene period. The lizard Cernaycerta and placental mammal Bustylus cernaysi are named after the formation.
Sivaladapis is a genus of adapiform primate that lived in Asia during the middle Miocene.
Prolimnocyon is an extinct paraphyletic genus of hyaenodontid mammals known from the Paleocene to the Eocene of Asia and North America. It is the earliest known member of the hyaenodontid family Limnocyonidae.
Acidomomys is a plesiadapiform mammal, meaning that is it a precursor to the primates or very closely related to them. It belongs to the family Paromomyidae.
Propliopithecoidea is a superfamily of catarrhine primates that inhabited Africa and Arabia during the Early Oligocene about 32 to 29 million years ago. Fossils have been found in Egypt, Oman and Angola. They are one of the earliest known families of catarrhines.
Azygonyx was a small tillodont mammal, likely the size of a cat to raccoon, that lived in North America during the Paleocene and Eocene in the early part of the Cenozoic Era. The only fossils that have been recovered are from the Willwood and Fort Union Formations in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, United States, and date to the Clarkforkian to Wasatchian, about 56 to 50 million years ago. Fifty-six collections that have been recovered thus far include the remains of Azygonyx. Azygonyx survived the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum along with other mammals like Phenacodus and Ectocion, both of which were ground-dwelling mammals. Azygonyx probably was a generalist terrestrial mammal that may have roamed around the ground, but was also capable of climbing trees.
