Teilhardina

Teilhardina Temporal range: 56–47 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N Early Eocene - Middle Eocene
Teilhardina belgica
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Suborder:	Haplorrhini
Family:	†Omomyidae
Genus:	†Teilhardina Simpson, 1940
Species
†Teilhardina crassidens †Teilhardina belgica †Teilhardina americana †Teilhardina brandti †Teilhardina demissa †Teilhardina tenuicula †Teilhardina asiatica †Teilhardina magnoliana

Teilhardina was an early marmoset-like primate that lived in Europe, North America and Asia during in the Early Eocene epoch, about 56-47 million years ago. The paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson is credited with naming it after Jesuit paleontologist and philosopher Teilhard de Chardin. It is known from quite a few species:

• †Teilhardina crassidens
• †Teilhardina belgica
• †Teilhardina americana
• †Teilhardina brandti
• †Teilhardina demissa
• †Teilhardina tenuicula
• †Teilhardina asiatica
• †Teilhardina magnoliana

The placement of this genus is uncertain and it is likely to be polyphyletic. Two species (T. belgica and T. asiatica) appear to be haplorrhine, but equally ancestral to both modern tarsiers and simians, and the genus should be reserved for those two species only. The others appear to be anaptomorphine omomyids (and thus more closely related to the tarsiers than to simians) and should have a new genus erected.