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Convergent evolution of anthropoid-like adaptations in Eocene adapiform primates.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Seiffert, ER; Perry, JMG; Simons, EL; Boyer, DM
Published in: Nature
October 2009

Adapiform or 'adapoid' primates first appear in the fossil record in the earliest Eocene epoch ( approximately 55 million years (Myr) ago), and were common components of Palaeogene primate communities in Europe, Asia and North America. Adapiforms are commonly referred to as the 'lemur-like' primates of the Eocene epoch, and recent phylogenetic analyses have placed adapiforms as stem members of Strepsirrhini, a primate suborder whose crown clade includes lemurs, lorises and galagos. An alternative view is that adapiforms are stem anthropoids. This debate has recently been rekindled by the description of a largely complete skeleton of the adapiform Darwinius, from the middle Eocene of Europe, which has been widely publicised as an important 'link' in the early evolution of Anthropoidea. Here we describe the complete dentition and jaw of a large-bodied adapiform (Afradapis gen. nov.) from the earliest late Eocene of Egypt ( approximately 37 Myr ago) that exhibits a striking series of derived dental and gnathic features that also occur in younger anthropoid primates-notably the earliest catarrhine ancestors of Old World monkeys and apes. Phylogenetic analysis of 360 morphological features scored across 117 living and extinct primates (including all candidate stem anthropoids) does not place adapiforms as haplorhines (that is, members of a Tarsius-Anthropoidea clade) or as stem anthropoids, but rather as sister taxa of crown Strepsirrhini; Afradapis and Darwinius are placed in a geographically widespread clade of caenopithecine adapiforms that left no known descendants. The specialized morphological features that these adapiforms share with anthropoids are therefore most parsimoniously interpreted as evolutionary convergences. As the largest non-anthropoid primate ever documented in Afro-Arabia, Afradapis nevertheless provides surprising new evidence for prosimian diversity in the Eocene of Africa, and raises the possibility that ecological competition between adapiforms and higher primates might have played an important role during the early evolution of stem and crown Anthropoidea in Afro-Arabia.

Duke Scholars

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Published In

Nature

DOI

EISSN

1476-4687

ISSN

0028-0836

Publication Date

October 2009

Volume

461

Issue

7267

Start / End Page

1118 / 1121

Related Subject Headings

  • Tooth
  • Primates
  • Phylogeny
  • Mandible
  • General Science & Technology
  • Egypt
  • Dentition
  • Biological Evolution
  • Animals
  • Adaptation, Physiological
 

Citation

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Seiffert, E. R., Perry, J. M. G., Simons, E. L., & Boyer, D. M. (2009). Convergent evolution of anthropoid-like adaptations in Eocene adapiform primates. Nature, 461(7267), 1118–1121. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08429
Seiffert, Erik R., Jonathan M. G. Perry, Elwyn L. Simons, and Doug M. Boyer. “Convergent evolution of anthropoid-like adaptations in Eocene adapiform primates.Nature 461, no. 7267 (October 2009): 1118–21. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08429.
Seiffert ER, Perry JMG, Simons EL, Boyer DM. Convergent evolution of anthropoid-like adaptations in Eocene adapiform primates. Nature. 2009 Oct;461(7267):1118–21.
Seiffert, Erik R., et al. “Convergent evolution of anthropoid-like adaptations in Eocene adapiform primates.Nature, vol. 461, no. 7267, Oct. 2009, pp. 1118–21. Epmc, doi:10.1038/nature08429.
Seiffert ER, Perry JMG, Simons EL, Boyer DM. Convergent evolution of anthropoid-like adaptations in Eocene adapiform primates. Nature. 2009 Oct;461(7267):1118–1121.
Journal cover image

Published In

Nature

DOI

EISSN

1476-4687

ISSN

0028-0836

Publication Date

October 2009

Volume

461

Issue

7267

Start / End Page

1118 / 1121

Related Subject Headings

  • Tooth
  • Primates
  • Phylogeny
  • Mandible
  • General Science & Technology
  • Egypt
  • Dentition
  • Biological Evolution
  • Animals
  • Adaptation, Physiological