Carpolestes Temporal range: late Paleocene, 61.7–55.8 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N | |
---|---|
Carpolestes simpsoni | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Plesiadapiformes |
Family: | †Carpolestidae |
Genus: | †Carpolestes Simpson, 1928 |
Type species | |
†Carpolestes nigridens | |
Paleospecies | |
†C. dubius Jepsen, 1930 |
Carpolestes is a genus of extinct primate-like mammals from the late Paleocene of North America. It first existed around 58 million years ago. The three species of Carpolestes appear to form a lineage, with the earliest occurring species, C. dubius, ancestral to the type species, C. nigridens, which, in turn, was ancestral to the most recently occurring species, C. simpsoni.
Carpolestes had flattened fingernails on its feet but with claws on its fingers. Morphologically it supports Robert Sussman's theory of the co-evolution of tropical fruiting Angiosperms and early primates where Angiosperms provide nectar and fruits in return for dispersing the seed for tropical rainforest plants. It appears to have been a distant relative of the Plesiadapiforms such as Plesiadapis.
References
- ^ Bloch, J.I.; D.C. Fisher; K.D. Rose & P.D. Gingerich (2001). "Stratocladistic analysis of Paleocene Carpolestidae (Mammalia, Plesiadapiformes) with description of a new late Tiffanian genus". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 21 (1): 119–131. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2001)021[0119:SAOPCM]2.0.CO;2. S2CID 86026612.
- Helen Pilcher "Flower Child" in New Scientist, The Collection, The Human Story (2014)
- Sussman, Robert “Primate origins and the Evolution of Angiosperms” in American Journal of Primatology Vol 23, No.4 (1991) pp209-223
Euarchontoglires | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Taxon identifiers | |
---|---|
Carpolestes |
This prehistoric mammal-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |
- Plesiadapiformes
- Prehistoric placental genera
- Eocene primates
- Ypresian life
- Thanetian life
- Wasatchian
- Clarkforkian
- Paleocene mammals of North America
- Fossils of the United States
- Paleontology in Montana
- Paleontology in Wyoming
- Fossil taxa described in 1928
- Taxa named by George Gaylord Simpson
- Prehistoric mammal stubs