Oldest known euarchontan tarsals and affinities of Paleocene Purgatorius to Primates.

ABSTRACT: Earliest Paleocene Purgatorius often is regarded as the geologically oldest primate, but it has been known only from fossilized dentitions since it was first described half a century ago. The dentition of Purgatorius is more primitive than those of all known living and fossil primates, leading some researchers to suggest that it lies near the ancestry of all other primates; however, others have questioned its affinities to primates or even to placental mammals. Here we report the first (to our knowledge) nondental remains (tarsal bones) attributed to Purgatorius from the same earliest Paleocene deposits that have yielded numerous fossil dentitions of this poorly known mammal. Three independent phylogenetic analyses that incorporate new data from these fossils support primate affinities of

SUBMITTER: Chester SG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4321231 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature