Skeletal remains of a diminutive primate from the Paleocene of Germany |
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Authors: | Gerhard Storch |
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Institution: | (1) Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Senckenberg-Anlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt, Germany |
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Abstract: | Most living mammal orders, including our own, started their career during the first 10 million years of the Cenozoic, the
Age of Mammals. The fossil record documents that early Paleogene adaptive radiations of various clades included tiny species
of the size of living shrews. Remains of particularly diminutive limb bones are described from the late Paleocene site of
Walbeck, Sachsen-Anhalt. Discovered in 1939, it has remained the only known Paleocene mammal-bearing locality from Germany.
The remains are referred to the family Adapisoriculidae, which is considered on the basis of the present postcranial evidence
to represent plesiadapiform primates rather than alleged lipotyphlan insectivores as previously proposed. The Walbeck fossils
compete with the Early Eocene species Toliapina vinealis from Europe and Picromomys petersonorum from North America for the status of the smallest known primate, fossil and living. Their estimated body weights are as small
as 10 g. The limb bones show features related to enhanced flexion at the elbow and hip joint, suggesting arboreal habits and
environments such as terminal branches. The diminutive size and tooth morphology suggest feeding on small insects and other
invertebrates. Postcranials are important to assess early radiations, such tiny specimens as the present ones are extremely
scarce in the fossil record, however. |
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Keywords: | Diminutive primate Paleocene Germany Limb bones Plesiadapiforms |
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