Indraloris and Sivaladapis: Miocene adapid primates from the Siwaliks of India and Pakistan

Abstract

THE primate family Adapidae underwent a major radiation during the Eocene in Europe^1,2 and North America^3,4. Asian and African Eocene mammalian faunas are still poorly known, but there is sufficient evidence to indicate at least a modest radiation of Eocene adapids in Asia^5,6 and probably also in Africa². Apart from possible lemuriform and anthropoid primate derivatives, the family Adapidae was thought to have become extinct at the end of the Eocene (middle Tongrian, ∼37 Myr (refs 2, 7, 8)). We present here new evidence which indicates that at least two genera of adapid primates, Indraloris and Sivaladapis (gen. nov.), survived into the late Miocene of India and Pakistan. These genera are little advanced over Eocene Adapidae in terms of dental adaptations and are apparently south Asian relicts of a much earlier radiation.