Abstract
Between 1987 and 1991 recent field seasons in the Fayum Depression of Egypt have yielded five species and genera of primates that were earlier unknown. Three of these species and genera are described below. All these genera and species are known only from Fayum site L-41, which has been dated as of late Eocene age. In the Fayum, these 5 species from L-41 are added to 3 kinds of prosimians (1 species formally described) and 11 earlier named species of Anthropoidea. When certain undescribed species are added, the total of known Fayum primate species comes to 21, belonging to at least 10 genera, genera that, in turn, could belong to as many as seven families. This arguably represents more taxonomic diversity of primates, especially higher primates, than has been demonstrated before in one so spatially and temporally limited area. These facts argue that an important, perhaps primary, radiation of anthropoideans took place in the African Eocene.
Full text
PDF
Images in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Godinot M., Mahboubi M. Earliest known simian primate found in Algeria. Nature. 1992 May 28;357(6376):324–326. doi: 10.1038/357324a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rasmussen D. T., Simons E. L. New specimens of Oligopithecus savagei, early Oligocene primate from the Fayum, Egypt. Folia Primatol (Basel) 1988;51(4):182–208. doi: 10.1159/000156372. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Simons E. L. Description of two genera and species of late Eocene Anthropoidea from Egypt. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1989 Dec;86(24):9956–9960. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.24.9956. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Simons E. L. Discovery of the oldest known anthropoidean skull from the paleogene of Egypt. Science. 1990 Mar 30;247(4950):1567–1569. doi: 10.1126/science.2108499. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]