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VOL.461 NO.7267 DATED 22 OCTOBER 2009
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Evolution: Darwinius-like fossil is a false dawn
The fossilized remains of a 37-million-year-old lemur-like primate are reported in this week’s Nature. Although the animal shares several features with higher primates, including humans, detailed analysis reveals these to have evolved independently through ‘convergent evolution’.
Erik Seiffert and colleagues describe the jaw and teeth of a newly discovered Eocene primate. The animal was a close relative of Darwinius, another Eocene primate that was controversially claimed by some as a ‘missing link’ in the early evolution of higher primates.
Both the new form and Darwinius belong to the adapoids — a group of extinct primates. Phylogenetic analysis of over 300 characteristics across 117 living and extinct primates reveals that the adapoids are not ancestors to higher primates, but rather a separate lineage with no known descendants. This means that the features they share with higher primates, such as the loss of the upper and lower second premolar, must have evolved independently.
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Erik Seiffert (Stony Brook University, New York, USA)
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