Quelques uns des fragments de mâchoires et des dents d’Afradapis longicristatus retrouvés en Egypte.

Some fragments of jaws and teeth ofAfradapis longicristatus found in Egypt. (Erik Seiffert et al, Nature 2009)
Si fossil primate known Ida was quickly placed under the spotlight last May, its position in the evolutionary history of the family of primates is more difficult to find. After the discovery of another species of primate related to Ida, paleontologists today refutes the privileged position given to primates during his official presentation in May.

According to its discoverers, this young female lemur-like, old 47 million years, could be an ancestor common to the two major groups separating primates: the lemurs and lorises on one side and that of anthropoids of another (tarsiers, monkeys with tails, apes and humans).

Erik Seiffert (Stony Brook University, USA) and colleagues, the fossil Darwinius masillaeAka Ida, has nothing in common with the line which we come. To say that these paleontologists rely on the discovery of hundreds of teeth and jaw fragments torn from the Fayum desert in Egypt, belonging to a primate 37 million years Afradapis longicristatus.

As Ida Afradapis adapiforme is a group of primates from the Eocene (between -58 and -36 million years) that resemble lemurs today. It is in this group that we meet the ancestors of lemurs and lorises, although some have suggested that adapiformes are the ancestors of apes.

After reviewing and comparing 360 morphological characters for 117 primates (missing or existing), Seiffert and colleagues argue in the journal Nature adapiformes that are not the ancestors of our line (assuming also undermined by the discovery of fossil monkeys in Asia). The characteristics they share with the anthropoid primates have therefore evolved independently in this group, say researchers.

As for Afradapis and DarwiniusThey are part of a subgroup of adapiformes who left no descendants, according to Seiffert and colleagues. Conclusions that are sure to discuss the discoverers of Ida, fuels purchased by the Museum of Natural History in New York After a tumultuous journey.