UNM Newsroom / News / UNM researchers: Scientists describe earliest primate fossils

Life-like rendering

Life-like rendering

Newly-described early primate species Purgatorius mckeeveri. Purgatorius mckeeveri quickly set themselves apart from their competition by specializing on a omnivorous diet including fruit found up in the trees.

Credit: Andrey Atuchin

Researchers from across the US...

Researchers from across the US...

analyzed several fossils of Purgatorius, the oldest genus in a group of the earliest-known primates called plesiadapiforms.

Earliest known fossil evidence of any primate

Earliest known fossil evidence of any primate

The team analyzed fossilized teeth found in the Hell Creek area of northeastern Montana.

UNM researchers: Scientists describe earliest primate fossils

Primates diversified right after the mass extinction that wiped out all dinosaurs except birds

February 24, 2021

Categories: Front Page Faculty News Earth & Planetary Sciences Honors College Latest News Research

Tags: Royal Society Open Science Purgatorius research

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