Chapter 18 - Patterns in Primate Evolution

Abstract

Primates are one of most adaptively diverse orders of living mammals with an exceptionally good fossil record. However, the adaptive diversity of primates has changed through our evolutionary history. Diversity in body size has expanded through primate evolution, with large primates only appearing in the last 20 million years. While there have been folivorous primates since the Eocene, the earliest folivorous anthropoids date to the Miocene and greatly expanded with the evolution of Old World monkeys. There have been Primate leapers and quadrupeds since the Eocene, but suspensory taxa first appeared in the Miocene. Many behavioral and ecological adaptations, such as folivory, leaping, or suspensory behavior have evolved independently in many separate lineages of primates. The fossil record shows that the characteristic features of extant primate clades evolved in a mosaic fashion, and in many cases, fossils documents the sequence of their appearance. Many aspects of the biogeography of primate evolution can be related to global tectonic and climatic events. Extinction has been a common phenomenon in the evolutionary history of primates and is a threat to primates today.