Adapiform facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Adapiform |
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| Notharctus tenebrosus | |
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†Adapiformes
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Adapiforms were an extinct group of early primates. They lived a very long time ago. These ancient animals spread across many northern parts of the world. You could find them in North America, Europe, Asia, and even northern Africa.
Adapiforms lived from the Eocene to the Miocene epochs. The Eocene period started about 55 million years ago. It ended around 34 million years ago. The Miocene period followed, lasting until about 5 million years ago. Some adapiforms looked a bit like modern-day lemurs. Lemurs are primates mostly found on the island of Madagascar.
Scientists only know about adapiforms from their fossils. It's not fully clear if all adapiforms came from a single ancestor. When scientists group them together, they usually place them with "wet-nosed" primates. This group is called Strepsirrhini. This means adapiforms are more closely related to lemurs. They are less related to "dry-nosed" primates, known as Haplorhini. The Haplorhini group includes monkeys and apes.
In 2009, some scientists thought a new fossil, Darwinius, was a "missing link." They believed it connected the wet-nosed and dry-nosed primates. However, later research showed this was not the case. Most scientists now agree that Darwinius and other adapiforms belong with the Strepsirrhini.
Discovering Adapiform Fossils
The fossil record of Adapiforms is quite large. Scientists have found many fossils of these animals. The oldest adapiform fossils are from the earliest Eocene. This means they lived about 55 million years ago.
These fossils have been found on four different continents. They lived in North America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. The Eocene was a time when Earth was much warmer than it is today. There were huge tropical forests covering much more land than now. Finding their remains across so many places suggests they appeared even earlier. Some studies using "molecular clocks" suggest primates might have evolved 80 to 90 million years ago. This is almost 40 million years before their first appearance in the fossil record.
See Also
In Spanish: Adapiformes para niños
