| Adapiformes Temporal range: Eocene - Miocene |
|
|---|---|
| Notharctus tenebrosus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Infraorder: | Adapiformes Hoffstetter, 1977 |
| Families (extinct) | |
|
Notharctidae |
|
Adapiformes are an extinct group of primitive primates. The adapiformes radiated throughout much of the northern continental mass, reaching as far south as northern Africa and tropical Asia. The adapiformes existed from the Eocene to the Miocene epoch. Most of the adapiformes looked similar to living lemurs.
The adapiforms are known from the fossil record only, and it is unclear whether they form a monophyletic or paraphyletic group. When assumed to be a clade, they are usually grouped under the "wet-nosed" taxon Strepsirrhini, which would make them related to the lemurs, but not to the "dry-nosed" Haplorrhini taxon that includes monkeys and apes.[1]
Franzen et al. (2009) place the newly-described Darwinius genus in the "Adapoidea group of early primates representative of early haplorhine diversification" so that, according to these authors, the adapiforms would not be within the Strepsirrhini lineage as hitherto assumed but qualify as a stem "missing link" between Strepsirrhini and Haplorrhini.[2] However, subsequent analysis on the Darwinius fossil by Erik Seiffert, et al. rejects this "missing link" theory, classifying Darwinius within the Strepsirrhini.[3]
See also List of fossil primates