Primate origins: plugging the gaps

Recent discoveries of fossil primate specimens have produced several surprises and challenged prevailing views of early primate evolution. Plesiadapiformes, long regarded as 'archaic primates', may perhaps be linked to the peculiar colugos instead. Inferred relationships of the earliest kn...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1993-05, Vol.363 (6426), p.223-234
Main Author: Martin, Robert D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Biological Evolution
Evolution
Fossils
Humans
Monkeys & apes
Paleontology
Primates
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Summary:Recent discoveries of fossil primate specimens have produced several surprises and challenged prevailing views of early primate evolution. Plesiadapiformes, long regarded as 'archaic primates', may perhaps be linked to the peculiar colugos instead. Inferred relationships of the earliest known undoubted primates (adapids and omomyids) are in turmoil. Both groups have been proposed as sources for the simian primates. Although the origin of the simian primates is obscure, new fossil evidence could push it further back by at least 10 million years. Such uncertainties reflect the low sampling level of the primate fossil record, which can potentially also lead to underestimation of times of origin within the primate tree.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/363223a0