Carpolestes
Sign in to saveCarpolestes (from Ancient Greek καρπός (karpós), meaning "fruit", and λῃστής (lēistḗs), meaning "robber", and thus, "fruit robber") 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.
Wikidata facts
- Parent taxon
- Carpolestidae
- Image
- CarpolestesZICA.png
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Encyclopedic overview
4 sectionsContents
- Description
- Palaeobiology
- Palaeoecology
- References
Carpolestes (from Ancient Greek καρπός (karpós), meaning "fruit", and λῃστής (lēistḗs), meaning "robber", and thus, "fruit robber") 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.
== Description == Carpolestes had flattened fingernails on its feet but with claws on its fingers. It appears to have been a distant relative of the Plesiadapiformes, such as Plesiadapis.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Carpolestes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.