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Other similar basal primates were widespread in Eurasia and Africa during the tropical conditions of the Paleocene and Eocene. Purgatorius is the genus of the four extinct species believed to be the earliest example of a primate or a proto-primate, a primatomorph precursor to the Plesiadapiformes, dating to as old as 66 million years ago.
This relationship is shown by the ranks (prosimians in bold) in the list below of the current primate classification between the order and infraorder level. The term "prosimian" is considered taxonomically obsolete, [15] although it is used to emphasize similarities between strepsirrhines, tarsiers, and the early primates. [16] Order Primates
Sir Wilfrid Le Gros Clark was one of the primatologists who developed the idea of trends in primate evolution and the methodology of arranging the living members of an order into an "ascending series" leading to humans. [7] Commonly used names for groups of primates such as prosimians, monkeys, lesser apes, and great apes reflect this methodology.
A primate is a member of the biological order Primates, the group that contains lemurs, the aye-aye, lorisids, galagos, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes, with the last category including great apes. With the exception of humans, who inhabit every continent on Earth, most primates live in tropical or subtropical regions of the Americas , Africa and ...
Below is a cladogram with some of the extinct simian species with the more modern species emerging within the Eosimiidae. The simians originated in Asia, while the crown simians were in Afro-Arabia. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 5 ] [ 15 ] [ 7 ] [ 16 ] It is indicated approximately how many Mya the clades diverged into newer clades.
According to molecular clock studies, the last common ancestor of all primates dates to around 79.6 mya, [3] although the earliest known fossil primates are only 54–55 million years old. [4] The closest relatives of primates are the extinct plesiadapiforms, the modern colugos (commonly and inaccurately named "flying lemurs"), and treeshrews. [3]
According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Sumatran orangutan is on the critically endangered list. This distinction means that the species faces an extremely high ...
The order Primates consists of 505 extant species belonging to 81 genera. This does not include hybrid species or extinct prehistoric species. Modern molecular studies indicate that the 81 genera can be grouped into 16 families; these families are divided between two named suborders and are grouped in those suborders into named clades, and some of these families are subdivided into named ...