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.
Terry Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520257214
- eISBN:
- 9780520945425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520257214.003.0020
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
The lorisiformes are a group of strepsirrhine primates, comprising the extant galagos and lorisids, that are included together in the superfamily Lorisoidea. They share with other crown ...
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The lorisiformes are a group of strepsirrhine primates, comprising the extant galagos and lorisids, that are included together in the superfamily Lorisoidea. They share with other crown strepsirrhines the possession of a specialized tooth comb, comprising the lower canines and incisors, reduced upper incisors with a broad central diastema, and a toilet claw on the second pedal digit. Molecular, karyological, and anatomical studies confirm that galagos and lorisids are monophyletic with respect to lemuriforms from Madagascar. Earlier molecular studies produced contradictory results concerning the monophyly of lorisids and galagids, respectively. The galagos are included together in a single family, the Galagidae, restricted to sub-Saharan Africa. The later Tertiary fossil record of Lorisiformes is quite poor, being restricted to material from the middle to late Miocene of the Siwalik Group of northern Pakistan and to Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene localities in Africa.Less
The lorisiformes are a group of strepsirrhine primates, comprising the extant galagos and lorisids, that are included together in the superfamily Lorisoidea. They share with other crown strepsirrhines the possession of a specialized tooth comb, comprising the lower canines and incisors, reduced upper incisors with a broad central diastema, and a toilet claw on the second pedal digit. Molecular, karyological, and anatomical studies confirm that galagos and lorisids are monophyletic with respect to lemuriforms from Madagascar. Earlier molecular studies produced contradictory results concerning the monophyly of lorisids and galagids, respectively. The galagos are included together in a single family, the Galagidae, restricted to sub-Saharan Africa. The later Tertiary fossil record of Lorisiformes is quite poor, being restricted to material from the middle to late Miocene of the Siwalik Group of northern Pakistan and to Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene localities in Africa.
