Evidence from earliest known erinaceomorph basicranium that insectivorans and primates are not closely related

Abstract

The erinaceomorph insectivorans, which include the living hedgehog and a diversity of archaic taxa, have long been considered to be close relatives or direct ancestors of primates and a variety of other placental mammal orders. We report here on the oldest known erinaceomorph basicranium which provides new evidence against the view that primates and erinaceomorphs share a close common ancestry.