A clue to the Asian origin of euprimates

Abstract

Competing hypotheses maintain that euprimates originated in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, or East Asia, although the earliest unequivocally identified euprimates have been recorded mainly from Europe and North America. Recently we reported the discovery of Teilhardina asiatica from the earliest Eocene of China. This discovery constitutes the oldest unambiguous euprimate from Asia, and represents the most primitive known omomyid. It suggests that European and North American omomyids were probably rooted in Asia, and casts new light on the Asian-origin hypothesis of euprimates. The possibility of finding morphologically more generalized euprimates (or proto-euprimates) in southern China cannot be dismissed. © 2004 The Anthropological Society of Nippon.