Misplaced Pages

Afrotarsius

Article snapshot taken from[REDACTED] with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Extinct genus of primates

Afrotarsius
Temporal range: Eocene to Oligocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorhini
Infraorder: Tarsiiformes
Family: Afrotarsiidae
Genus: Afrotarsius
Simons & Bown, 1985
Type species
Afrotarsius chatrathi
Simons & Bown, 1985
Species
  • Afrotarsius chatrathi Simons & Bown, 1985
  • Afrotarsius libycus Jaeger et al., 2010

Afrotarsius is a primate found in the Paleogene of Africa.

Two molars, one of Afrotarsius (left) and one of Afrasia (right), are compared, with an Eocene map of the globe showing where each came from. In the lower left, a life reconstruction of Afrotarsius is shown.
Afrasia from Asia and Afrotarsius from Africa exhibit similar morphology of their teeth and lived in the late middle Eocene, suggesting stem simians dispersed from Asia to Africa around that time.

The first species to be named, Afrotarsius chatrathi, was named in 1985 on the basis of a single lower jaw from the Oligocene of Fayum, Egypt, and tentatively referred to the tarsier family (Tarsiidae). However, this relationship immediately proved controversial, and in 1987 the animal was placed in a separate family Afrotarsiidae related to simians. A tarsier-like tibiofibula was allocated to Afrotarsius in 1998, but the identity of this bone is controversial. In 2010, a second species of the genus, Afrotarsius libycus, was named from the Eocene of Dur At-Talah, Libya, on the basis of isolated upper and lower teeth. Features of these teeth were interpreted as additional evidence for a relationship between Afrotarsius and anthropoids. A second afrotarsiid genus, Afrasia, was named in 2012 from the Eocene Pondaung Formation of Myanmar. In the same paper, Afrotarsiidae was placed together with the Asian Eosimiidae in an infraorder Eosimiiformes, in the simians. However, some studies indicate that it should be placed in Tarsiiformes.

Evolutionary history

Phylogeny of Paleogene simians
Primates

Strepsirrhini (†adapiforms, lemurs, & lorisoids)

Haplorhini

Omomyidae + Tarsiidae (tarsiers)

Eosimiiformes
Afrotarsiidae

Afrasia djijidae

Afrotarsius libycus

Eosimiidae

Bahinia

Eosimias

Phenacopithecus

Parapithecidae

Proteopithecidae

Platyrrhini (New World monkeys)

Amphipithecidae

Oligopithecidae

Propliopithecidae

According to Chaimanee et al. 2012, the close relationship between Afrasia djijidae from Southeast Asia and Afrotarsius libycus from North Africa demonstrates one of at least two dispersals of stem simians from Asia to Africa during the middle Eocene.

References

  1. Simons & Bown 1985.
  2. Ginsburg & Mein 1987, p. 1215.
  3. Rasmussen, Conroy & Simons 1998.
  4. Godinot 2010, p. 321.
  5. Jaeger et al. 2010.
  6. Chaimanee et al. 2012.
  7. Jaeger, Jean-Jacques; Chavasseau, Olivier; Lazzari, Vincent; Naing Soe, Aung; Sein, Chit; Le Maître, Anne; Shwe, Hla; Chaimanee, Yaowalak (2019-08-06). "New Eocene primate from Myanmar shares dental characters with African Eocene crown anthropoids". Nature Communications. 10 (1): 3531. Bibcode:2019NatCo..10.3531J. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11295-6. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 6684601. PMID 31388005.
  8. Chaimanee et al. 2012, p. 4 of 5.

Literature cited

Haplorhini
Haplorhini
"Omomyidae"
Microchoerinae
"Anaptomorphinae"
"Omomyinae"
Tarkadectinae
Tarsiiformes
Tarsiidae
Simiiformes
    • see below↓
Teilhardina sp.
Simiiformes
Simiiformes
Afrotarsiidae?
Eosimiidae
Amphipithecidae
Parapithecoidea
Proteopithecidae
Parapithecidae
Platyrrhini
Aotidae
Pitheciidae
Atelidae
Cebidae
Callitrichidae
Catarrhini
    • see below↓
Eosimias sinensis
Catarrhini
Catarrhini
Oligopithecidae
Propliopithecidae
Pliopithecoidea
Pliopithecidae
Dionysopithecidae
Crouzeliidae
Cercopithecoidea
Victoriapithecidae
Colobinae
Cercopithecinae
Cercopithecini
Papionini
Hominoidea
    • see below↓
Aegyptopithecus zeuxis
Hominoidea
Hominoidea
Dendropithecidae
Hylobatidae
Hominidae
Ponginae
Homininae
Dryopithecini
Gorillini
Hominini
Hominina
Gigantopithecus blacki
Taxon identifiers
Afrotarsius
Categories:
Afrotarsius Add topic