查看文章

A new genus and species of Tarsiidae is described from the late middle Eocene Heti Formation, Yuanqu Basin, southern Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. Phylogenetic analysis of dental and gnathic characters suggests that Xanthorhysis tabrumi, n. gen. and sp., is the sister group of the clade including all living and fossil species of Tarsius (including T. eocaenus). Cladogenesis among the principal taxa of haplorhine primates, including Tarsiidae, Omomyidae, and Anthropoidea, must have occurred early in the Paleogene. Based on their fossil record and the geographic distribution of outgroups, Tarsiidae probably originated on the Asian mainland. Their current geographic restriction to offshore islands in southeastern Asia is interpreted as relictual. Access to the tropical, low-latitude refugia of the Sunda Shelf and its environs during middle Cenozoic climatic deterioration was a key factor underlying the …