Simons E L
Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University, Durham, NC 27705-5000, USA.
Science. 1995 Jun 30;268(5219):1885-8. doi: 10.1126/science.7604261.
Recent finds of Catopithecus browni at an upper Eocene fossil site in the Fayum depression, Egypt, reveal features of the earliest higher primates. This basal anthropoidean shows a set of derived cranial and dental features that first occur in combination in this fossil. Old World Anthropoidea or Catarrhini can now be traced back to Catopithecus in Egypt. Size, shape, orientation of incisors and canines, and other features of the teeth and skull relate Catopithecus both to later Anthropoidea and to the early and middle Eocene cercamoniine adapoids. Most defining characteristics of higher primates cannot be documented earlier than the late Eocene of Africa.
近期在埃及法尤姆凹陷一处始新世晚期化石遗址发现的布氏卡披猿，揭示了最早高等灵长类动物的特征。这种基干类人猿展现出一系列特有的颅骨和牙齿特征，这些特征首次在该化石中组合出现。旧世界类人猿或狭鼻小目动物如今可以追溯到埃及的卡披猿。布氏卡披猿的大小、形状、门齿和犬齿的方向以及牙齿和头骨的其他特征，将其与后来的类人猿以及始新世早期和中期的 cercamoniine 类适应辐射灵长类动物联系起来。高等灵长类动物的大多数决定性特征直到非洲始新世晚期才有记录。
