Paleontology and the Origin of the Primates

Abstract

As information on Tertiary insectivores and early primates accumulates, the limits of the order primates become ever more difficult to define, though at the present level of knowledge certain features of the dentition and construction of the auditory bulla of primates still appear to be taxonomically useful in delimiting the order. The tupaiids, micro-syopids, apatemyids, mixodectids, and leptictoid insectivores (sensu lato) are regarded here as non-primates but especially close to the stock from which the primates originated at the beginning of the Tertiary Period.