Marc Godinot
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257214
- eISBN:
- 9780520945425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257214.003.0019
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
The term prosimians is a grouping of all the primates that are outside the anthropoidean, or simian, clade. The suborder Strepsirrhini, which includes two infraorders, Adapiformes and Lemuriformes, ...
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The term prosimians is a grouping of all the primates that are outside the anthropoidean, or simian, clade. The suborder Strepsirrhini, which includes two infraorders, Adapiformes and Lemuriformes, to which now needs to be added the informal stem lemuriforms, genera that are more closely related to lemuriforms than to adapiforms, but that do not possess the defining character of lemuriforms. All the living African and Asian Lorisoidea and Malagasy Lemuroidea possess a shared derived dental structure, composed of the two lower incisors and the canine, which are procumbent and closely appressed into an anterior tooth comb. This allows the convenient distinction between the lemuriforms (all living Strepsirrhines with a tooth comb) and the extinct adapiforms. A number of discoveries clarified important points of systematics and phylogeny, while others continue to add controversial taxa. Some fossils, added to the variety of primates already found in Africa, have sometimes been used as evidence for the origin and diversification of primates on the African continent.Less
The term prosimians is a grouping of all the primates that are outside the anthropoidean, or simian, clade. The suborder Strepsirrhini, which includes two infraorders, Adapiformes and Lemuriformes, to which now needs to be added the informal stem lemuriforms, genera that are more closely related to lemuriforms than to adapiforms, but that do not possess the defining character of lemuriforms. All the living African and Asian Lorisoidea and Malagasy Lemuroidea possess a shared derived dental structure, composed of the two lower incisors and the canine, which are procumbent and closely appressed into an anterior tooth comb. This allows the convenient distinction between the lemuriforms (all living Strepsirrhines with a tooth comb) and the extinct adapiforms. A number of discoveries clarified important points of systematics and phylogeny, while others continue to add controversial taxa. Some fossils, added to the variety of primates already found in Africa, have sometimes been used as evidence for the origin and diversification of primates on the African continent.
Laurie R. Godfrey, William L. Jungers, and David A. Burney
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257214
- eISBN:
- 9780520945425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257214.003.0021
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
Madagascar's living lemurs (order Primates) belong to a radiation recently ravaged by extirpation and extinction. There are three extinct and five extant families (two with extinct members) of lemurs ...
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Madagascar's living lemurs (order Primates) belong to a radiation recently ravaged by extirpation and extinction. There are three extinct and five extant families (two with extinct members) of lemurs on an island of less than 600,000 square kilometers. This level of familial diversity characterizes no other primate radiation. The remains of up to seventeen species of recently extinct (or subfossil) lemurs have been found alongside those of still extant lemurs at numerous Holocene and late Pleistocene sites in Madagascar. The closest relatives of the lemurs are the lorisiform primates of continental Africa and Asia; together with the lemurs, these comprise the suborder Strepsirrhini. With regard to extinct lemurs, morphological, developmental, and molecular data support a sister taxon relationship for the Palaeopropithecidae (four genera) and the Indriidae. This chapter describes the systematic paleontology of subfossil lemurs of Madagascar.Less
Madagascar's living lemurs (order Primates) belong to a radiation recently ravaged by extirpation and extinction. There are three extinct and five extant families (two with extinct members) of lemurs on an island of less than 600,000 square kilometers. This level of familial diversity characterizes no other primate radiation. The remains of up to seventeen species of recently extinct (or subfossil) lemurs have been found alongside those of still extant lemurs at numerous Holocene and late Pleistocene sites in Madagascar. The closest relatives of the lemurs are the lorisiform primates of continental Africa and Asia; together with the lemurs, these comprise the suborder Strepsirrhini. With regard to extinct lemurs, morphological, developmental, and molecular data support a sister taxon relationship for the Palaeopropithecidae (four genera) and the Indriidae. This chapter describes the systematic paleontology of subfossil lemurs of Madagascar.
