Central to issues surrounding the origin of euprimates, affinities of Paleocene Carpolestidae
have been controversial. Carpolestids have been classified as plesiadapoid primates,
tarsiiform euprimates, dermopterans, or the sister taxon of euprimates to the exclusion of
other plesiadapiforms, based exclusively on dental or postcranial data. Newly discovered
crania of Carpolestes simpsoni from the latest Paleocene of the Clarks Fork Basin,
Wyoming, are the first described for the family Carpolestidae. The two best preserved skulls …