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Oldest known euarchontan tarsals and affinities of Paleocene Purgatorius to Primates Project ID: 00000C136 Public
48 Media · 16 Specimens · Managed by: Douglas Boyer

Earliest Paleocene Purgatorius often is regarded as the geologicallyoldest primate, but it has been known only from fossilized dentitions since it was first described half a century ago. The dentition of Purgatorius is more primitive than those of all known living and fossil primates, leading some researchers to suggest that it lies near the ancestry of all other primates, however, others have questioned its affinities to primates or even to placental mammals. Here we report the first (to our knowledge) nondental remains (tarsal bones) attributed to Purgatorius from the same earliest Paleocene deposits that have yielded numerous fossil dentitions of this poorly known mammal. Three independent phylogenetic analyses that incorporate new data from these fossils support primate affinities of Purgatorius among euarchontan mammals (primates, treeshrews, and colugos). Astragali and calcanei attributed to Purgatorius indicate a mobile ankle typical of arboreal euarchontan mammals generally and of Paleocene and Eocene plesiadapiforms specifically and provide the earliest fossil evidence of arboreality in primates and other euarchontan mammals. Postcranial specializations for arboreality in the earliest primates likely played a key role in the evolutionary success of this mammalian radiation in the Paleocene.

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  ID Part Object Taxonomy Type Date Added Publication Status  
000004585 Calcaneus UCMP:V:197517 Purgatorius sp. Mesh 2015-01-30 Open Download  
000004583 Calcaneus UCMP:V:197517 Purgatorius sp. Mesh 2015-01-30 Open Download  
000004582 Calcaneus UCMP:V:197517 Purgatorius sp. Volumetric Image Series 2015-01-30 Open Download  
000004581 Calcaneus UCMP:V:197516 Purgatorius sp. Mesh 2015-01-30 Open Download  
000004580 Calcaneus UCMP:V:197516 Purgatorius sp. Mesh 2015-01-30 Open Download  
000004579 Calcaneus UCMP:V:197516 Purgatorius sp. Volumetric Image Series 2015-01-30 Open Download  
000004578 Calcaneus UCMP:V:197515 Mammalia indet. Mesh 2015-01-30 Open Download  
000004577 Calcaneus UCMP:V:197515 Mammalia indet. Mesh 2015-01-30 Open Download  
000004576 Calcaneus UCMP:V:197515 Mammalia indet. Volumetric Image Series 2015-01-30 Open Download  
000004573 Calcaneus UCMP:V:197508 Purgatorius sp. Volumetric Image Series 2015-01-30 Open Download  
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