Disseration Research: A Phylogenetic Analysis of the Plesiadapiformes and their Relationship to Euprimates and other Archontans

化石沉积可追溯到始新世（大约）。5500万年前)产生了哺乳动物中最早的明确成员。这些原始灵长类动物的来源传统上被认为是在蛇齿适应目中，这是一个古老的哺乳动物群体，具有类似灵长类动物的牙齿，可以追溯到古新世和始新世。最近只关注非牙齿特征的研究表明，蛇舌适应类的一些成员与现代印度尼西亚的滑行哺乳动物群（Dermoptera）的关系比与灵长类动物的关系更密切。这一假设使我们自己的秩序的起源成为一个争论的问题。该项目旨在利用当代系统技术重新评估plesiadapformes的位置。数据将收集在所有可用的解剖区域，并为所有的蛇适应类群。本研究的目的包括阐明蛇形目的科间关系，明确蛇形目与灵长类、皮目目、蝙蝠、树鼩以及一些已灭绝的化石类群（蛇形目和斜齿目）的确切系统发育关系。地层资料也将纳入分析，以调查标本随时间的相对顺序对阐明进化关系的重要性。这项研究将是第一个包括所有来源的信息，跨越足够广泛的分类群，以回答围绕着蛇适应目的系统学问题，并澄清灵长类动物的基础事件。

Fossil deposits dated to the Eocene (approx. 55 million years ago) have yielded the earliest unequivocal members of our own order of mammals. The source of these primitive primates has traditionally been thought to lie among the Plesiadapiformes, an archaic group of mammals with primate-like teeth that date to the Paleocene and Eocene. Recent work looking only at non-dental traits has suggested that some members of the plesiadapiform cluster are more closely related to the modern Indonesian group of gliding mammals, the Dermoptera, than to the primates. This hypothesis leaves the source of origin of our own order as a matter of debate. This project seeks to reevaluate the position of the Plesiadapiformes using contemporary systematic techniques. Data will be collected on all available anatomical regions, and for all plesiadapiform groups. The goals of this study include the elucidation of interfamilial relations within the Plesiadapiformes, and the clarification of the precise phylogenetic relationship of plesiadapiform families to undoubted primates, dermopterans, bats, tree shrews, and a few extinct fossil groups (Mixodectidae and Plagiomenidae). Stratigraphic information will also be incorporated into the analysis, to investigate the importance of the relative ordering of specimens through time to the elucidation of evolutionary relationships. This study will be the first to include all sources of information across a broad enough range of taxa to answer the questions surrounding the systematics of the Plesiadapiformes, and to clarify the events at the base of the order Primates.