Adapis

Adapis is an extinct adapiform primate from the Eocene of Europe. While this genus has traditionally contained five species (A. magnus, A. bruni, A. collinsonae, A. parisiensis, and A. sudrei), recent research has recognized at least six morphotypes that may represent distinct species. Adapis holds the title of the first Eocene primate ever discovered. In 1821, Georges Cuvier, who is considered to be the founding father of paleontology, discovered Adapis in fissure fillings outside of Paris, France. Given its timing and appearance in the fossil record, Cuvier did not recognize the primate affinities of Adapis and first described it as a small extinct pachyderm; only later in the 19th century was Adapis identified as a primate.

==Etymology and Naming== One etymology suggests that the word is derived from , 'without' and 'carpet', a reference to the assumed texture of its skin as it was considered a pachyderm. However, since Pachydermata was first described in the eighteenth century, and 'adapis' was in use as a vernacular name for the hyrax during the sixteenth century, this etymology may be anachronistic. The more plausible etymology, which is referenced by Cuvier himself, is that, since he believed that the remains from the Paris region belonged to an extinct genus of pachyderms, he adopted Adapis, a non-scientific name that was "sometimes used for the Hyrax", which he considered related to Adapis. Cuvier's source for the informal name was Conrad Gesner, Historiae animalium, I (Zurich, 1551), chapter on rabbits, p. 395. Gesner himself believed that both adapis and the Aramaic word from which he thought it was derived actually referred to the common rabbit.