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Phylogenetic tree of the primates Notharctus. The evolutionary history of the primates can be traced back 57-90 million years. [1] One of the oldest known primate-like mammal species, Plesiadapis, came from North America; [2] another, Archicebus, came from China. [3]
Plesiadapis is one of the oldest known primate-like mammal genera which existed about 58–55 million years ago in North America and Europe. [2] [3] Plesiadapis means "near-Adapis", which is a reference to the adapiform primate of the Eocene period, Adapis.
The order Primates, established by Linnaeus in 1758, includes humans and their immediate ancestors. However, contrarily to the common opinion, most primates do not have especially large brains. Brain size is a derived character, which only appeared with genus Homo, and was lacking in the first hominid.
[33] [34] The oldest known primates from the fossil record date to the Late Paleocene of Africa, c.57 mya (Altiatlasius) [35] or the Paleocene-Eocene transition in the northern continents, c. 55 mya (Cantius, Donrussellia, Altanius, Plesiadapis and Teilhardina).
Teilhardina magnoliana is the earliest known North American primate; its fossil was first discovered in the US state of Mississippi. It was a tree-dwelling fur-covered tiny creature with a long, slender tail; the tail was significantly longer than the body. [1] [10]
Altiatlasius koulchii, potentially the oldest known euprimate, [1] is known only from ten isolated upper and lower molars and a fragment of a mandible. [a] [4] [5] These fossils date to the Late Paleocene, approximately 57 million years ago, [b] and come from the Jbel Guersif Formation in the Ouarzazate Basin of Morocco. [4]
What may be the earliest-known human ancestor, an ape-man called Sahelanthropus tchadensis who lived in Africa roughly 7 million years ago, walked upright for
From its earliest appearance at about 1.9 Ma, H. erectus is distributed in East Africa and Southwest Asia (Homo georgicus). H. erectus is the first known species to develop control of fire, by about 1.5 Ma. H. erectus later migrates throughout Eurasia, reaching Southeast Asia by 0.7 Ma. It is described in a number of subspecies. [38]