A new primate from the late Eocene of Vietnam illuminates unexpected strepsirrhine diversity and evolution in Southeast Asia.

ABSTRACT: Sivaladapidae is a poorly known Asian strepsirrhine family originally discovered in Miocene sediments of the Indian subcontinent. Subsequent research has considerably increased the diversity, temporal range, and geographical distribution of this group, now documented from China, Thailand, Myanmar, Pakistan, and India and whose earliest representatives date back to the Middle Eocene. We present here a new taxon of sivaladapid from the Na Duong coal mine in the Latest Middle Eocene-Late Eocene of Vietnam. It represents the first Eocene primate from Vietnam and the first medium-sized mammal recovered from this locality, thus documenting a completely new part of the Na Duong paleobiodiversity. This taxon is the largest sivaladapid ever found with an estimated body weight of 5.3 kg and it repre

SUBMITTER: Chavasseau O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6934687 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature