Eocene primates

[BlueKrono]

Hi all,
I'm looking for a primate that lived in Asia (more specifically Mongolia, but Asia would probably suffice) during the Middle Eocene, between 48-41 million years ago. Does anyone know of any that would fit within these specifications?

[SBell]

Hi all,
I'm looking for a primate that lived in Asia (more specifically Mongolia, but Asia would probably suffice) during the Middle Eocene, between 48-41 million years ago. Does anyone know of any that would fit within these specifications?

You might want to narrow down 'primate' a little--as with many groups, there was a lot of of variety in the Eocene.

For starters, Wikipedia has a list of all Eocene genera:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Eocene_primates

But you'll need to hunt down the Asian ones

Alternately, if you search here on Paleobiology Database, using 'Asia' under Country Continent; 'Primates' under Taxon name (unless you have a more specific subgroup in mind); and early Miocene to late Miocene (unless you wish to be more specific)

http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl

You can get a list of 30+ locales which include some kind of Primates material (hard to say how specific it will be)

[BlueKrono]

Yes, I found the Wikipedia page, but I was hoping to not have to go through the 80+ pages one by one, some of which lack quite a bit of information. I couldn't figure out how to use the search tool on the fossilworks site - how to specify primates and time period at the same time. :/

[Halichoeres]

I ran a query on paleodb and the vast majority of Eocene primates are from the western United States and Europe (some of that is biogeographically real but some of it is an artifact of sampling effort). Relevant to your question, these are the results in the order that they were returned:

Altanius orlovi, Eocene of Mongolia
Macrotarsius macrorhysis, Eocene of China
Hoanghonius stehlini, Eocene of China
Pondaungia cotteri, Eocene of Myanmar
Pondaungia minuta, Eocene of Myanmar
Bahinia pondaungensis, Eocene of Myanmar
Amphipithecus mogaungensis, Eocene of Myanmar
Myanmarpithecus yarshensis, Eocene of Myanmar
Paukkaungia parva, Eocene of Myanmar
Kyitchaungia takaii, Eocene of Myanmar
Rencunius zhoui, Eocene of China
Xanthorhysis tabrumi, Eocene of China
Adapoides troglodytes, Eocene of China
Tarsius eocaenus, Eocene of China
Eosimias sinensis, Eocene of China
Eosimias centennicus, Eocene of China
Eosimias dawsonae, Eocene of China
Phenacopithecus xueshii, Eocene of China
Phenacopithecus krishtalkai, Eocene of China
Guangxilemur tongi, Eocene of China
Bataaromomys ulaanus, Eocene of Mongolia
Teilhardina asiatica, Eocene of China
Subengius mengi, Eocene of China
Chronolestes simul, Eocene of China
Carpocristes oriens, Eocene of China
Asiomomys changbaicus, Eocene of China
Tarkops mckennai, Eocene of China
Ganlea megacanina, Eocene of Myanmar
Afrasia djijidae, Eocene of Myanmar
Pseudoloris erenensis, Eocene of China
Asioplesiadapis youngi, Eocene of China
Archicebus achilles, Eocene of China
Altanius orlovi, Eocene of Mongolia
Dianomomys ambiguus, Eocene of China
Ignacius sp., Eocene of China
Micromomyidae incertae sedis, Eocene of China
Rencunius wui, Eocene of China

I had never heard of most of these and can't vouch for their taxonomic validity, this just gives the name as given in whatever publication indicated their presence. The genus Tarsius also includes living tarsiers, so I doubt the one given here is referable. There are also some primate records from Thailand, India, and Pakistan--I'm happy to send along the full data file if you're interested. I suspect you'll find that most are only known from teeth, jaw fragments, or bits of ankle.

[Papi-Anon]

I forgot about eosimias. I remember the announcement of the fossil finds back when I was still in high school, that they were fossilized feet the size of rice grains.

[BlueKrono]

Halichoeres - Thank you! I spy three [edit: one's a duplicate :s] that are specifically from Mongolia.

Papi-Anon - Hehe - http://comicvine.gamespot.com/eosimias/4005-45761/