Europolemur

Europolemur is a genus of adapiform primates that lived in Europe during the middle Eocene.[1]

Europolemur
Temporal range:
Radiographic comparison of middle Eocene primates from Geiseltal, Germany. A to D are fossils of Europolemur klatti
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Strepsirrhini
Family: †Adapidae
Subfamily: †Caenopithecinae
Genus: †Europolemur
Weigelt, 1933
Type species
†Europolemur klatti
Weigelt, 1933
Species

Morphology
Europolemur koenigswaldi fossil

Europolemur klatti is part of a group of long-digited fossils that most likely approximates early euprimate hand proportions. E. klatti has a grasping hallux and there is evidence that it may have had nails rather than claws.[2] This implies that stabilizing the tips of the digits and hand must in some way have been important for its lifestyle in its habitat. Relative to the forearm, the hand of E. klatti was large, which may be related to vertical climbing or posture. The shape of the calcaneus resembles that found in Smilodectes and Notharctus. E. klatti had an average body mass of 1.7 kilograms.[3]

Dentition

In 1995, two isolated upper molars belonging to E. klatti were found in an old lake deposit during excavations by the "Naturhistorisches Museum Mainz/Landessammlung für Naturkunde Rheinland-Pfalz".[4] The museum determined that the molars (as well as a mandible with nearly complete dentition belonging to another cercamoiines, Periconodon) were representative of the first primates from the Middle Eocene Eckfelder Maar in the Southwest Eifel, Germany. E. klatti has a dental formula of 2.1.3.32.1.3.3[2][5] (permanent dentition) and a deciduous dentition of 2.1.4.32.1.4.3.[2] One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the genus Europolemur is the lack of a metaconule. The dental anatomy of their genus is described in more detail by Franzen as consisting of "upper canines big and pointed; upper molars without postflexus; postprotocrista prominent; no metaconulus; M3 smaller and shorter than M2; P4 much shorter than broad, with a weak parastyle; P4 with a small and unicuspid talonid and a metaconid present to absent; protocristid of M nearly transversely oriented. Protoconid of P3 little higher than that of P4."[6]

References
  1. Gebo 2002, pp. 28–29.
  2. Martin, R.D. (1990). Primate Origins and Evolution: A Phylogenetic Reconstruction. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-08565-4.
  3. Fleagle, J. G. (1998). Primate Adaptation and Evolution (2 ed.). Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-260341-9.
  4. Franzen, Jens Lorenz (August 2004). "First fossil primates from Eckfeld Maar, Middle Eocene (Eifel, Germany)". Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae. Birkhäuser Basel. 97 (2): 213–220. doi:10.1007/s00015-004-1115-8. S2CID 129860781.
  5. Franzen, J.L. (1987). "Ein neuer Primate aus dem Mitteleozan der Grube Messel (Deutschland, S-Hessen)". Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg. 91: 151–187.
  6. Franzen, J.L. (2004). "First Fossil Primates from Eckfeld Maar, Middle Eocene (Eifel, Germany)". Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae. 97 (2): 213–220. doi:10.1007/s00015-004-1115-8. S2CID 129860781.

Literature cited
  • Covert, H. 1990. Phylogenetic Relationships among the Notharctinae of North America. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Vol. 81, Issue 3, 381–398.
  • Godinot, M. 1966. Functional Approaches of Paleogene Primate Hands. Geobios. Vol. 24, Issue SUPPLE. 1, 161–173.
  • Godinot, M. 1992. Early Euprimitive Hands in Evolutionary Perspective. Journal of Human Evolution. Vol. 22, Issue 4–5, 267–283.
  • Wilson, J.A. 1976. New Adapid Primate of European Affinities from Texas. Folia Primatologica. Vol. 25, Issue 4, 294–312.
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