Phylogeny and paleobiogeography of the enigmatic North American primate Ekgmowechashala illuminated by new fossils from Nebraska (USA) and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (China)

Abstract

Ekgmowechashala is a poorly documented but very distinctive primate known only from the late early Oligocene (early Arikareean) of western North America. Because of its highly autapomorphous dentition and spatiotemporal isolation, the phylogenetic and biogeographic affinities of Ekgmowechashala have long been debated. Here, we describe the oldest known fossils of Ekgmowechashala from the Brown Siltstone Beds of the Brule Formation, White River Group of western Nebraska. We also describe a new ekgmowechashaline taxon from the Nadu Formation (late Eocene) in the Baise Basin of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that North American Ekgmowechashala and the new Chinese taxon are sister taxa that are nested within a radiation of southern Asian adapiforms that also includes Gatanthropus, Muangthanhinius, and Bugtilemur. The new Chinese ekgmowechashaline helps fill the considerable disparity in dental morphology between Ekgmowechashala and more primitive ekgmowechashalids known from southern Asia. Our study underscores the fundamental role of southern Asia as a refugium for multiple primate clades during the cooler and drier climatic regime that prevailed after the Eocene–Oligocene transition. The colonization of North America by Ekgmowechashala helps define the beginning of the Arikareean Land Mammal Age and corresponds to an example of the Lazarus effect, whereby a taxon (in this case, the order Primates) reappears suddenly in the fossil record after a lengthy hiatus.