Notharctinae

Mounted skeleton of Notharctus tenebrosus in the American Museum of Natural History, photographed by Claire Houck.

Belongs within: Adapiformes.

The Notharctinae are a group of Eocene lemur-like primates found in Europe and North America, with the higher diversity in the latter. They were supported as a clade in the morphological analysis of Seiffert et al. (2009), but synapomorphies were not explicitly listed. The type genus Notharctus includes some of the last surviving primates in North America before the arrival of humans.

Notharctinae
    |  i. s.: Periconodon Stehlin 1916 MA05, S62
    |           `--*P. helveticus (Rütimeyer 1891) [=Pelycodus helveticus] S62
    |--+--Cantius Simons 1962 NG13, S62
    |  |    |--*C. eppsi (Cooper 1932) [=Protoadapis eppsi] S62
    |  |    |--C. abditus OB13
    |  |    |--C. frugivorus NG13
    |  |    |--C. torresi Gingerich 1986 T90
    |  |    `--C. trigonodus HUG17
    |  `--+--Barnesia hauboldi SP09
    |     `--Protoadapis Lemoine 1878 SP09, S62 [incl. Megatarsius Weigelt 1933 S62]
    |          |--*P. curvicuspidens Lemoine 1878 S62
    |          |--P. angustidens (Filhol 1888) [=Adapis angustidens; incl. Protadapis brachyrhynchus Stehlin 1912] S62
    |          |--P. copei S62
    |          |--P. raabi S62
    |          `--P. recticuspidens Lemoine 1878 (n. d.) [=Protiadapis recticuspidens] S62
    `--+--Smilodectes Wortmann 1903 NG13, SKS05 [incl. Aphanolemur S62]
       |    |--‘Aphanolemur’ gibbosus Granger & Gregory 1917 S62
       |    `--S. gracilis Marsh 1871 SKS05
       `--Notharctus Leidy 1870 NG13, D07 (see below for synonymy)
            |--‘Pelycodus’ angulatum Cope 1875 [=Tomitherium angulatus] C77
            |--N. crassus WR07
            |--‘Pelycodus’ frugivorus Cope 1875 [=Tomitherium frugivorus] C77
            |--‘Prototomus’ jarrovii Cope 1874 [=Pelycodus jarrovii, Tomitherium jarrovii] C77
            |--N. osborni NG13
            |--N. pubnax D07
            |--N. robinsoni D07
            |--N. robustior WR07
            |--‘Tomitherium’ rostratum C77
            |--N. tenebrosus Leidy 1870 SKS05
            |--‘Tomitherium’ tutum Cope 1876 C77
            |--N. tyrannus BS07
            `--N. venticolus WR07

Notharctus Leidy 1870 NG13, D07 [incl. Limnotherium Marsh 1871 V66, Prosinopa Trouessart 1897 V66, Telmalestes Marsh 1872 V66, Telmatolestes Marsh 1872 V66, Thinolestes Marsh 1872 V66, Tomitherium Cope 1872 V66]

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[BS07] Bloch, J. I., M. T. Silcox, D. M. Boyer & E. J. Sargis. 2007. New Paleocene skeletons and the relationship of plesiadapiforms to crown-clade primates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 104 (4): 1159–1164.

[C77] Cope, E. D. 1877. Report upon the extinct Vertebrata obtained in New Mexico by parties of the expedition of 1874. Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian 4(2): i–iv, 1–370.

[D07] Dixon, D. 2007. The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures. Hermes House: London.

[HUG17] Halliday, T. J. D., P. Upchurch & A. Goswami. 2017. Resolving the relationships of Paleocene placental mammals. Biological Reviews 92 (1): 521–550.

[MA05] Marivaux, L., P.-O. Antoine, S. R. H. Baqri, M. Benammi, Y. Chaimanee, J.-Y. Crochet, D. de Franceschi, N. Iqbal, J.-J. Jaeger, G. Métais, G. Roohi & J.-L. Welcomme. 2005. Anthropoid primates from the Oligocene of Pakistan (Bugti Hills): data on early anthropoid evolution and biogeography. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 102 (24): 8436–8441.

[NG13] Ni, X., D. L. Gebo, M. Dagosto, J. Meng, P. Tafforeau, J. J. Flynn & K. C. Beard. 2013. The oldest known primate skeleton and early haplorhine evolution. Nature 498: 60–64.

[OB13] O'Leary, M. A., J. I. Bloch, J. J. Flynn, T. J. Gaudin, A. Giallombardo, N. P. Giannini, S. L. Goldberg, B. P. Kraatz, Z.-X. Luo, J. Meng, X. Ni, M. J. Novacek, F. A. Perini, Z. S. Randall, G. W. Rougier, E. J. Sargis, M. T. Silcox, N. B. Simmons, M. Spaulding, P. M. Velazco, M. Weksler, J. R. Wible & A. L. Cirranello. 2013. The placental mammal ancestor and the post-K–Pg radiation of placentals. Science 339: 662–667.

[SKS05] Scherf, H., B. Koller & F. Schrenk. 2005. Locomotion-related structures in the femoral trabecular architecture of primates and insectivores (Mammalia, Primates and Insectivora). Senckenbergiana Biologica 85 (1): 101–112.

[SP09] Seiffert, E. R., J. M. G. Perry, E. L. Simons & D. M. Boyer. 2009. Convergent evolution of anthropoid-like adaptations in Eocene adapiform primates. Nature 461: 1118–1121.

[S62] Simons, E. L. 1962. A new Eocene primate genus, Cantius, and a revision of some allied European lemuroids. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History): Geology 7 (1): 1–36.

[T90] Thewissen, J. G. M. 1990. Evolution of Paleocene and Eocene Phenacodontidae (Mammalia, Condylarthra). Museum of Paleontology Papers on Paleontology 29: 1–107.

[V66] Van Valen, L. 1966. Deltatheridia, a new order of mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 132 (1): 1–126.

[WR07] Wible, J. R., G. W. Rougier, M. J. Novacek & R. J. Asher. 2007. Cretaceous eutherians and Laurasian origin for placental mammals near the K/T boundary. Nature 447: 1003–1006.

Last updated: 24 July 2018.