please answer this/// name the earlist known primate fossil?

Answer 1

The Nonhominid Primate Fossil Record


The earliest known primates in the fossil record belong to the genus Altiatlasius and are dated at 60 million years. The primates probably originated during the Early Paleocene or the Late Cretaceous. The early primates were very small animals characterized by a grasping foot, epidermal ridges in palm and fingers, and stereoscopic vision. Their diet probably consisted of fruits and insects. Among the Eocene primates, two distinct morphological patterns are found in North America and Europe; one characterizes the family Adapidae and the other the family Omomyidae. In some ways, the adapids resemble modern lemurs and lorises and the omomyids resemble the tarsiers. Fossils that appear related to modern lorises, galagos, and tarsiers are known from the fossil record beginning with the Early Oligocene. A true tarsier has been recovered from southern China dating from the Middle Eocene.

The suborder Anthropoidea includes the living monkeys, apes, and humans. They are characterized by complete bony eye sockets, a fused metopic suture, lower molars that have rounded puffy cusps, deep mandibles with fused midline symphyses, and other features. The Jebel Qatrani Formation, of the Fayum of Egypt, dates from the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene. The primates of the upper levels belong to the families Parapithecidae and Propliopithecidae. The Parapithecidae, which includes Aegyptopithecus, may represent a group of primates ancestral to both the cercopithecoids and the hominoids. The ceboids, or New World monkeys, are probably derived from early African anthropoids that traveled across the then-narrower Atlantic Ocean on natural rafts. The earliest-known ceboid dates from the Late Oligocene. The evolution of ceboids into their current subfamilies took place by the Middle Miocene. The cercopithecoids, or Old World monkeys, were relatively scarce in the Miocene; yet by the Pliocene and Pleistocene they became common animals, especially in Africa. The earliest-known fossil cercopithecoids belong to the family Victoriapithecidae, which dates from the Early and Middle Miocene. Beginning in the Late Miocene, the monkeys underwent a divergence into the two subfamilies, the Cercopithecinae and the Colobinae.

The superfamily Hominoidea includes the living apes and humans. The earliest hominoids to appear in the fossil record are from the Early Miocene fossil beds of east Africa, dated between 22 and 18 million B.P. They are sometimes called "dental apes" because their dentition was reminiscent of modern apes in many ways, while their postcranial skeleton is monkeylike, or perhaps simply primitive. Most of the hominoids disappeared from the fossil record by around eight million years ago during the Late Miocene. However, one genus, Gigantopithecus, survived into the Pleistocene of China. Perhaps the earliest known Early Miocene hominoid is Proconsul. The cranium shows many features that characterize the early Old World anthropoids. Proconsul was probably an arboreal quadruped that lacked specializations for suspensory behavior that are found in modern apes.

In the Middle Miocene a land connection developed between Africa and Asia which permitted the migration of the African hominoids into Asia between 16 and 14 million B.P. The Middle Miocene hominoids of Africa are represented by Kenyapithecus and Otavipithecus. Kenyapithecus differs from the African hominoids of the Early Miocene in exhibiting many features of the skull that are found in contemporary apes, but the postcranial skeleton still lacks the specializations of modern apes. The pliopithecids were the earliest Eurasian hominoids. They first appeared around 16 million years ago in Europe and lived during the Middle and Late Miocene. Middle Miocene European hominoids include members of the genus Dryopithecus. The Miocene hominoids reached their greatest diversity and geographical range in the late Miocene. One of the best-known genera is Sivapithecus. The hominids are thought to have diverged from the Miocene hominoids between 6 ½ and 5 ½ million years ago. Newly discovered fossils that appear to be hominid or very closely related to the hominids have been discovered that have been dated as far back as six million B.P.

Answer 2

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/chb/lectures/anthl_09.html
There are primate-like fossils from the Paleocene. And possibly, but not for sure, primates that appeared in the last part of the Paleocene. http://anthro.palomar.edu/earlyprimates/early_2.htm. But the first uniquivocal primate fossils are from the Eocene, apparently, about 50-54 million years ago.
" Among the new Eocene mammals were primate species that somewhat resemble modern prosimians such as lemurs, lorises, and possibly tarsiers. This was the epoch of maximum prosimian adaptive radiation. There were at least 60 genera of them that were mostly in two families--the Adapidae (similar to lemurs and lorises) and the Omomyidae (possibly like galagos and tarsiers). This is nearly four times greater prosimian diversity than today. "