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The oldest known primate skeleton and early haplorhine evolution

Naturevolume 498, pages60–64 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Reconstructing the earliest phases of primate evolution has been impeded by gaps in the fossil record, so that disagreements persist regarding the palaeobiology and phylogenetic relationships of the earliest primates. Here we report the discovery of a nearly complete and partly articulated skeleton of a primitive haplorhine primate from the early Eocene of China, about 55 million years ago, the oldest fossil primate of this quality ever recovered. Coupled with detailed morphological examination using propagation phase contrast X-ray synchrotron microtomography, our phylogenetic analysis based on total available evidence indicates that this fossil is the most basal known member of the tarsiiform clade. In addition to providing further support for an early dichotomy between the strepsirrhine and haplorhine clades, this new primate further constrains the age of divergence between tarsiiforms and anthropoids. It also strengthens the hypothesis that the earliest primates were probably diurnal, arboreal and primarily insectivorous mammals the size of modern pygmy mouse lemurs.

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Figure 1: Three-dimensional reconstruction of the type specimen (IVPP V18618) ofArchicebus achilles.
Figure 2: The head region ofArchicebus achilles.
Figure 3: The foot region ofArchicebus achilles.
Figure 4: Summary phylogeny of 157 mammals.

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Accession codes

Data deposits

ZooBank accessions: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:884CBACC-B602-471A-A7B0-E2AF092BA6F8 (Archicebidae fam. nov.); urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 163DE8EB-D691-49E4-A211-8ECF117756BD (Archicebus gen. nov.); urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:105EE748-38DE-4709-A7D0-44FE0E3E2813 (Archicebus achilles sp. nov.).

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Acknowledgements

This project has been supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS, XDB03020501), the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB821904), the CAS 100-talent Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40672009, 40872032), the US National Science Foundation (BCS 0820602), the ESRF (proposal ec347), and the Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). We are grateful to C. Li, Y. Wang, E. Delson, A. L. Rosenberger, E. Seiffert, M. T. Silcox and J. I. Bloch for helpful discussions. We thank C. Li and Q. Li for their assistance in the field, and C. Nemoz, T. Brochard and all the ID17 beamline team for their help during the synchrotron experiment. We thank the staff of the following museums for access to specimens: AMNH, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh; Royal Belgium Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origin, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142 Xi Zhi Men Wai Street, 100044, Beijing, China

    Xijun Ni

  2. Division of Paleontology and Richard Gilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, New York 10024, USA,

    Xijun Ni, Jin Meng & John J. Flynn

  3. Department of Anthropology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, 60115, Illinois, USA

    Daniel L. Gebo

  4. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, 60611, Illinois, USA

    Marian Dagosto

  5. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 38043, Grenoble, France

    Paul Tafforeau

  6. Section of Vertebrate Paleontology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 4400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, 15213, Pennsylvania, USA

    K. Christopher Beard

Authors
  1. Xijun Ni

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  2. Daniel L. Gebo

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  3. Marian Dagosto

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  4. Jin Meng

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  5. Paul Tafforeau

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  6. John J. Flynn

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  7. K. Christopher Beard

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Contributions

X.N. designed the study, analysed the data and wrote the paper. K.C.B., J.M., D.L.G. and M.D. contributed extensively and equally to the work presented in this paper. P.T. performed synchrotron microtomography experiments and edited the manuscript. J.J.F. collected part of the data and edited the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toXijun Ni.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Text and Data, Supplementary Figures 1-16, Supplementary Tables 1-15 and Supplementary References (see contents page for more details). (PDF 12294 kb)

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Ni, X., Gebo, D., Dagosto, M.et al. The oldest known primate skeleton and early haplorhine evolution.Nature498, 60–64 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12200

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Editorial Summary

A well preserved early primate

Our knowledge of the earliest phases of primate evolution is limited by the gaps in the fossil record. Some light is shed by the discovery of a nearly complete and substantially articulated skeleton of a tiny and very ancient primate from the early Eocene of China, dating to 55 million years ago. The newly discovered primate appears to be the earliest known relative of the tarsiers, suggesting a very early divergence of the anthropoid lineage from the other primates. The animal was about the size of the modern pygmy mouse lemur, and skeletal features suggest that it was an agile insectivore with a diurnal habit.

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