Archicebus
Sign in to saveArchicebus is a genus of fossil primates that lived in the early Eocene forests (~55.8–54.8 million years ago) of what is now Jingzhou in the Hubei Province in central China, discovered in 2013. The only known species, A. achilles, was a small primate, estimated to weigh about , and is the only known member of the family Archicebidae. When discovered, it was the oldest fossil haplorhine primate skeleton found, appearing to be most closely related to tarsiers and the fossil omomyids, although A. achilles is suggested to have been diurnal, whereas tarsiers are nocturnal. Resemblin
Article
9 sectionsContents
- Discovery and naming
- Etymology
- Evolutionary history
- Biogeography
- Anatomy
- Range and ecology
- References
- Literature cited
- External links
Archicebus is a genus of fossil primates that lived in the early Eocene forests (~55.8–54.8 million years ago) of what is now Jingzhou in the Hubei Province in central China, discovered in 2013. The only known species, A. achilles, was a small primate, estimated to weigh about , and is the only known member of the family Archicebidae. When discovered, it was the oldest fossil haplorhine primate skeleton found, appearing to be most closely related to tarsiers and the fossil omomyids, although A. achilles is suggested to have been diurnal, whereas tarsiers are nocturnal. Resembling tarsiers and simians (monkeys and apes), it was a haplorhine primate, and it also may have resembled the last common ancestor of all haplorhines.
== Discovery and naming == The holotype is specimen IVPP V18618 and it was discovered across two slabs of slate in by a farmer who was digging in Jingzhou, China.