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(约.5500万年前)产生了我们自己的哺乳动物中最早明确的成员。这些原始灵长类动物的来源传统上被认为是准灵长目动物，这是一种古老的哺乳动物群体，具有与灵长类相似的牙齿，可以追溯到古新世和始新世。最近只研究非牙齿特征的研究表明，蛇颈龙的一些成员与现代印度尼西亚滑行哺乳动物皮翅目的亲缘关系比与灵长类的亲缘关系更近。这一假说使我们自己的秩序的起源成为一个争论的问题。该项目试图使用现代系统技术重新评估雀形目动物的位置。将收集所有可用解剖区域的数据，并收集所有舌状骨的数据。这项研究的目的包括阐明拟翅目科的科间亲缘关系，以及明确拟翅目科与毫无疑问的灵长类、皮翅目、蝙蝠、树栖类和一些已灭绝的化石类群(混合科和斜纹科)的确切系统发育关系。地层学信息也将被纳入分析，以调查标本随时间的相对排序对阐明进化关系的重要性。这项研究将首次涵盖足够广泛的分类单元的所有信息来源，以回答围绕灵长目灵长目系统学的问题，并澄清灵长目动物的基础事件。

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.