Species diversity and postcranial anatomy of eocene primates from Shanghuang, China

Abstract

The middle Eocene Shanghuang fissure-fillings, located in southern Jiangsu Province in China near the coastal city of Shanghai (Fig. 1), contain a remarkably diverse array of fossil primates that provide a unique window into the complex role played by Asia during early primate evolution.1 Compared to contemporaneous localities in North America or Europe, the ancient primate community sampled at the Shanghuang fissure-fillings is unique in several ways. Although Shanghuang has some typical Eocene primates (Omomyidae and Adapoidea), it also contains the earliest known members of the Tarsiidae and Anthropoidea (Fig. 2), and some new taxa that are not as yet known from elsewhere. It exhibits a large number of primate species, at least 18, most of which are very small (15-500 g), including some of the smallest primates that have ever been recovered. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.