Age of the Earliest African Anthropoids

The earliest fossil record of African anthropoid primates (monkeys and apes) comes from the Jebel Qatrani Formation in the Fayum depression of Egypt. Reevaluation of both geologic and faunal evidence indicates that this formation was deposited in the early part of the Oligocene Epoch, more than 31 m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 234; no. 4781; pp. 1247 - 1249
Main Authors:	Fleagle, John G., Bown, Thomas M., Obradovich, John D., Simons, Elwyn L.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 05-12-1986 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Subjects:	Animal morphology Apes Basalt Evolution Evolution (Biology) Fauna Fossil primates Fossils Memory Monkeys Primates Primates, Fossil Vertebrates
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	The earliest fossil record of African anthropoid primates (monkeys and apes) comes from the Jebel Qatrani Formation in the Fayum depression of Egypt. Reevaluation of both geologic and faunal evidence indicates that this formation was deposited in the early part of the Oligocene Epoch, more than 31 million years ago, earlier than previous estimates. The great antiquity of the fossil higher primates from Egypt accords well with their primitive morphology compared with later Old World higher primates. Thus, the anthropoid primates and hystricomorph rodents from Fayum are also considerably older than the earliest higher primates and rodents from South America.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0036-8075 1095-9203
DOI:	10.1126/science.234.4781.1247