<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > the oldest primates actually lived with dinosaurs</h1>
There were already mammals as early as the time when dinosaurs lived, so did the primates we humans belong to in the age of dinosaurs? The latest research by paleontologists gives us the answer.
The Hell Creek Formation is a famous formation of the late Cretaceous period, which is distributed in the central and western parts of North America and is famous for discovering famous dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, and Ankylosaurus. Along with the huge dinosaur fossils, many small mammal fossils have been found, including a small fossil of the mandible with teeth from the Hell Creek Formation, which is preserved in the Paleontological Museum of the University of California.
Illustration: The Hell Creek Formation formation in Montana, image from the network
Image note: Cretaceous Montana ecological restoration, image from the Internet
Photo note: Fossils preserved in the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, image from the web
Just a few years ago, a team of ten paleontologists studied late Cretaceous mammals, and the samples they examined and compared included part of the collection of the Paleontological Museum of the University of California. When paleontologists looked at the mandible, they judged it to belong to the Purgatorius, a very primitive primate with a body length of only 15 centimeters and a weight of 37 grams. On the outside, the Pulgatori monkey does not look like a monkey at all, but rather a combination of a mouse and a squirrel, with a long pointed head, round eyes, and small sharp teeth in its mouth. The Pulgatori monkey is furry, has a large tail, its limbs are long and powerful, and its claws are bent to climb flexibly in trees.
Illustration: Restoration of the Pulgatori monkey, picture from the Internet
Picture note: Climbing a flower-eating Pulgatori monkey, picture from the Internet
Since their naming in 1965, there have been six species in the genus Purgatori monkeys, but they are different from the fossils belonging to the Purgatori monkeys studied in this study, proving that the fossils belong to the new species. In February 2021, paleontologists published a paper in the journal Royal Society Open Science that officially named the seventh species of the Pulgatori monkey genus, the Purgatorius mckeeveri, whose name comes from Frank McKeever, one of the earliest inhabitants of the fossil discovery site. His family has also been supporting paleontologists in their field excavations.
Based on stratigraphic judgments, the fossils of the Myrtlee Pulgatori monkey come from about 65.9 million years ago, possibly between 105,000 and 139,000 years after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. In this way, the Maison Pulgatori monkey must have lived at the end of the Late Cretaceous, which means that it lived with the last non-avian dinosaurs. The discovery of the Pulgatori monkey brought the genus forward, a very primitive primate that lasted from the Cretaceous 66 million years ago to the Paleocene 63 million years ago.
Illustration: Mammals living with Tyrannosaurus rex, picture from the Internet
Gregory Wilson Mantilla, director of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Washington's Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture, said of the discovery: "It's a shock to think of the oldest primates, our ancestors, who looked like this!" ”
The discovery of the Pulgatori monkeys proves that the earliest primates appeared before the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, hiding mainly in trees and feeding on insects and fruits. When the mass extinction occurred, these small animals survived on their own advantages, and after 1 million years, primates became richer, and the time for mammals has arrived!
Photo note: The Pulgatori monkey ushered in the dawn of the new century, picture from the Internet
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the University of California Paleontological Museum, and others.
thesis:
Gregory P. Wilson Mantilla et al. 2021. Earliest Palaeocene purgatoriids and the initial radiation of stem primates. R. Soc. open sci 8 (2): 210050; doi: 10.1098/rsos.210050
Image / Network (Intrusion and Deletion)
Text / Jiang's Little Thief Dragon (Jiang Hong)
Typography / Jiang's Little Thief Dragon