First skulls of the Early Eocene primate Shoshonius cooperi and the anthropoid-tarsier dichotomy

摘要: THE phylogenetic relationships of living tarsiers and extinct omomyid primates are critical for deciphering the origin primate higher taxa, particularly anthropoids1–6. Three competing hypotheses are: (1) most closely related to early Cenozoic Omomyidae5–8, genera such as Necrolemur from late Eocene Europe9–11; (2) share a more recent common ancestry with anthropoids than they do any known omomyid2–4,12,13; (3) and/or omomyids strepsirhines14. The anatomy four skulls Shoshonius cooperi — first cranial material recovered this genus—strongly suggests that shares Tarsius either or other which is known. If suborder Haplor-hini (anthropoids, omomyids, tarsiids) monophyletic, position requires diverged by at least Eocene, some 15 million years before appearance in fossil record15–17.