Cranial remains of an Eocene tarsier.
Cranial remains of an Eocene tarsier.
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.0509424103
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发表时间：
2006-03
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
James B. Rossie;Xijun Ni;K. Beard
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
James B. Rossie;Xijun Ni;K. Beard
相对于类人猿和古近纪的眼镜蛇的系统发育地位仍然是一个激烈争论的主题，这是类人猿起源研究的中心。长期以来，Oomyidys一直被认为是眼镜蛇的近亲，但也有人提出了类人猿和眼镜蛇之间的姐妹群关系。这些相互矛盾的系统发育重建在很大程度上依赖于颅骨解剖的比较，但到目前为止，眼镜蛇的化石记录仅限于一个颌骨和几个孤立的牙齿。本文记述了苏南地区上新世中始新世裂隙充填物中的一具化石--中国的头骨材料。这个面部碎片被分配给Tarsius eocaenus，与活着的Tarsius eocaenus的相应解剖结构几乎完全相同，而与早期的类人猿(如巴辛亚、Phenacopithecus和Parapithecus)的解剖结构有很大不同。这一新标本表明，在始新世中期首次被记录在化石记录中的时候，眼镜蛇已经拥有了大大扩大的轨道和单鼻型口鼻结构。
The phylogenetic position of tarsiers relative to anthropoids and Paleogene omomyids remains a subject of lively debate that lies at the center of research into anthropoid origins. Omomyids have long been regarded as the nearest relatives of tarsiers, but a sister group relationship between anthropoids and tarsiers has also been proposed. These conflicting phylogenetic reconstructions rely heavily on comparisons of cranial anatomy, but until now, the fossil record of tarsiers has been limited to a single jaw and several isolated teeth. In this article, we describe cranial material of a fossil tarsiid from the middle-Eocene Shanghuang fissure-fillings in southern Jiangsu Province, China. This facial fragment, which is allocated to Tarsius eocaenus, is virtually identical to the corresponding anatomy in living tarsiers and differs substantially from that of early anthropoids such as Bahinia, Phenacopithecus, and Parapithecus. This new specimen indicates that tarsiers already possessed greatly enlarged orbits and a haplorhine oronasal configuration by the time they are first documented in the fossil record during the middle Eocene.