Daniel L. Gebo

Teilhardina belgica is one of the earliest fossil primates ever recovered and the oldest fossil primate from Europe. As such, this taxon has often been hypothesized as a basal tarsiiform on the basis of its primitive dental formula with four premolars and a simplified molar cusp pattern. Until recently [see Rose et al.: Am J Phys Anthropol 146 (2011) 281–305; Gebo et al.: J Hum Evol 63 (2012) 205–218], little was known concerning its postcranial anatomy with the exception of its well‐known tarsals. In this article, we describe additional postcranial elements for T. belgica and compare these with other tarsiiforms and with primitive adapiforms. The forelimb of T. belgica indicates an arboreal primate with prominent forearm musculature, good elbow rotational mobility, and a horizontal, rather than a vertical body posture. The lateral hand positions imply grasps adaptive for relatively large diameter supports given its small body size. The hand is long with very long fingers, especially the middle phalanges. The hindlimb indicates foot inversion capabilities, frequent leaping, arboreal quadrupedalism, climbing, and grasping. The long and well‐muscled hallux can be coupled with long lateral phalanges to reconstruct a foot with long grasping digits. Our phyletic analysis indicates that we can identify several postcranial characteristics shared in common for stem primates as well as note several derived postcranial characters for Tarsiiformes. Am J Phys Anthropol 156:388–406, 2015.

Fossil Mammals of Asia is an edited volume from 2 workshops designed to synthesize and modernize the geological and paleontological records of Asia. The 2 works

The middle Eocene Shanghuang fissure‐fillings, located in southern Jiangsu Province in China near the coastal city of Shanghai (Fig. 1), contain a remarkably diverse array of fossil primates that provide a unique window into the complex role played by Asia during early primate evolution. 1 Compared to contemporaneous localities in North America or Europe, the ancient primate community sampled at the Shanghuang fissure‐fillings is unique in several ways. Although Shanghuang has some typical Eocene primates (Omomyidae and Adapoidea), it also contains the earliest known members of the Tarsiidae and Anthropoidea (Fig. 2), and some new taxa that are not as yet known from elsewhere. It exhibits a large number of primate species, at least 18, most of which are very small (15‐500 g), including some of the smallest primates that have ever been recovered. 2-4

A re‐examination of primate foot and knee anatomy suggests that strepsirrhine primates (adapiforms and lemuriforms) possess a unique and derived hindlimb related to their use of vertical supports. In contrast, leaping adaptations are older and shared by both major euprimate clades, Strepsirrhini and Haplorhini. Combining this derived hindlimb anatomy with leaping suggests that ancestral strepsirrhines were at least frequent vertical support users and leapers, and perhaps vertical clingers and leapers. These initial strepsirrhine adaptations were preadaptive for later lemuriform vertical clingers and leapers. In contrast, haplorhine vertical clingers and leapers require additional foot and leg modifications to accommodate a vertical clinging and leaping lifestyle. The movement pattern called vertical clinging and leaping evolved independently among different primate lineages throughout primate evolutionary history for several different ecological reasons. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2011.

New early Miocene forelimb fossils have been recovered from the Songhor and Lower Kapurtay localities in southwestern Kenya. We describe four specimens that are similar in size and functional capabilities. Their specific allocation is problematic but these forelimb specimens must belong to either Rangwapithecus gordoni or Proconsul africanus. If these new postcranial specimens should belong to R. gordoni, on the basis of size and common dental specimens found at Songhor, they represent a new elbow complex. The morphology of these fossils is anatomically and functionally similar to that of Proconsul. The proconsuloid elbow complex allows extensive forelimb rotations and is capable of performing arboreal quadrupedalism and climbing activities. No suspensory adaptations are apparent. The proconsuloid elbow complex remains a good ancestral condition for hominoid primates.