Eosimias
| Eosimias[1] Temporal range: Middle Eocene
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| Genus: | Eosimias† Beard et al., 1994
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Eosmias is a genus that includes Eosimias sinensis and Eosimias centennicus, two species of early Old World primates discovered in 1994 in China.[2] (Family Eosimiidae, generally considered a member of the Parvorder Catarrhini [the group that includes all of the Old World primates, including humans].) K. Christopher (Chris) Beard, lead member of the team that discovered Eosimias sinensis and described it in 1994, does not classify Eosimias within the Catarrhini, but rather in a separate extinct group within the Anthropoidea (Haplorrhini).[3]
About 16 species of early catarrhines inhabited Eocene China, and Eosimians are among the oldest currently-known members of the Catarrhini parvorder, at about 45-42 million years old during the Eocene. Only a few specimens have been uncovered and scientists assume that Eosimians looked like today's marmosets from South America. Several other early catarrhines came to light in the same deposits where the Eosimian fossils were found, and the discovery of the Eosimias genus raises questions about the theory that the catarrhines originated in Africa.[4][5]
See also
References
- ^ Haaramo, Mikko (2002-12-29). "Mikko's Phylogeny Archive". Retrieved 2007-07-05.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Beard KC, Tong Y, Dawson MR, Wang J, and Huang X (1996). "Earliest complete dentition of an anthropoid primate from the late middle Eocene of Shanxi province, China". Science. 272: 82–85.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Beard, Chris. (2004). The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey. University of California Press, Berkeley.
- ^ https://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/286/5439/528
- ^ http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sci;268/5219/1885?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=eosimias&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT