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Science 22 November 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5598, pp. 1564 - 1565
DOI: 10.1126/science.1079034
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Perspectives

PALEONTOLOGY:
Primate Origins Nailed

Eric J. Sargis

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the origin of euprimates (primates of modern aspect, including living primates). In his Perspective, Sargis highlights the report by Bloch and Boyer, who have discovered a fossil that allows these hypotheses to be tested. The 56-million-year-old skeleton of Carpolestes simpsoni, an early primate, has an opposable big toe with a nail rather than a claw, but lacks euprimate visual specializations (such as forward-facing eyes and orbits) and was not adapted for leaping. It seems, therefore, that grasping evolved in primates before visual specializations and leaping.

The author is in the Department of Anthropology, Yale University, Post Office Box 208277, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. E-mail: eric.sargis{at}yale.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Unique Mammalian tRNA-Derived Repetitive Elements in Dermopterans: The t-SINE Family and Its Retrotransposition Through Multiple Sources.
O. Piskurek, M. Nikaido, Boeadi, M. Baba, and N. Okada (2003)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 20, 1659-1668
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Comment on "Grasping Primate Origins".
E. C. Kirk, M. Cartmill, R. F. Kay, and P. Lemelin (2003)
Science 300, 741b
   Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)