Apidium

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Apidium
Fossil range: Late Eocene-Early Oligocene

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Family:	†Parapithecidae
Genus:	†Apidium Osborn, 1908

Paleospecies

†Apidium phiomense
†Apidium moustafai
†Apidium bowni

The genus Apidium (from Latin for "small bull", as the first fossils were thought to be from a type of a cow) is that of at least three extinct primates living in the early Oligocene, roughly 36 to 32 millions years ago. Apidium fossils are common in the Fayoum deposits of Egypt. Fossils of the earlier species, Apidium moustafai, are rare; fossils of the later species Apidium phiomense are fairly common.

Apidium is placed within the Parapithecidae family in the parvorder Catarrhini, making it closely related to the modern Old World haplorrhine primates, although roughly equally close to the Old World monkeys to which it resembles and the apes.

The Apidium species were well adapted to life in what once were the tropical forests of North Africa. The limbs of the Apidium show an ability to run along branches and leap between trees. Males were much larger than females, and had large canine teeth. Its hind feet were particularly good at grasping branches, ensuring that it didn't fall to the forest floor below, where predators might be waiting.^[1]

Unlike their nocturnal ancestors (e.g. Godinotia), these primates appear to have been diurnal, using their keen eyesight to find ripe fruit and insects in the trees, which it would then eat using its specially rounded and flattened teeth. Much of its walking time would have been spent in the search fo food, and it may have had to wander over a wide area to satisfy its hunger.^[1]

Male Apidium were bigger than the females, which, by comparing them with living primates, suggests that they probably lived in small groups, where a small number of males would have had control over several females. The males had large canine teeth, which they would use to fight one another over mating rights and for the ultimate right to control a particular group of female Apidium.^[1]