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Science 30 March 1990:
Vol. 247. no. 4950, pp. 1567 - 1569
DOI: 10.1126/science.2108499
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Articles

Science, Vol 247, Issue 4950, 1567-1569
Copyright © 1990 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Discovery of the oldest known anthropoidean skull from the paleogene of Egypt

EL Simons

Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University, Durham, NC.

A group of primate fossils newly discovered in the Fayum badlands of Egypt is probably of Eocene age. The site is much older than the localities of previously known Egyptian early Tertiary primates. These finds include a crushed cranium that is the oldest skull found to date of a higher primate. This skull shows four characteristics of higher primates: a catarrhine dental formula, an ectotympanic at the rim of the auditory bulla, a fused frontal bone, and postorbital closure. Details of tooth structure (premolars and molars) and a possibly unfused mandibular symphysis resemble these parts in certain Eocene prosimians.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Anthropoid humeri from the late Eocene of Egypt.
E. R. Seiffert, E. L. Simons, and J. G. Fleagle (2000)
PNAS 97, 10062-10067
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Preliminary description of the cranium of Proteopithecus sylviae, an Egyptian late Eocene anthropoidean primate.
E. L. Simons (1997)
PNAS 94, 14970-14975
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
An upper dentition of Aframonius dieides (Primates) from the Fayum, Egyptian Eocene.
E. L. Simons and E. R. Miller (1997)
PNAS 94, 7993-7996
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Skulls and anterior teeth of Catopithecus (primates:Anthropoidea) from the Eocene and anthropoid origins.
E. Simons (1995)
Science 268, 1885-1888
   Abstract »    PDF »


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