''Marcgodinotius'' is a genus of

adapiform Adapiformes is a group of early primates. Adapiforms radiated throughout much of the northern continental mass (now Europe, Asia and North America), reaching as far south as northern Africa and tropical Asia. They existed from the Eocene to the ...

primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

that lived in Asia during the early

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

. It is a monotypic genus, the only species being ''Marcgodinotius indicus''. Another adapiform primate ''Suratius robustus'' was found in the same horizon. ''Anthrasimias'' may be a junior synonym of ''Marcgodinotius'' and ''Anthrasimias gujaratensis'' a junior synonym of ''Marcgodinotius indicus''. ''Marcgodinotius indicus'' was a species of

first found in

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in 2005. It is believed to have lived about 55 million years ago, during the early

. It weighed around 75 grams which would make it only slightly larger than the world's smallest primates, the

mouse lemur The mouse lemurs are nocturnal lemurs of the genus ''Microcebus''. Like all lemurs, mouse lemurs are native to Madagascar. Mouse lemurs have a combined head, body and tail length of and weigh , making them the smallest primates (the smallest sp ...

s and the dwarf

galago Galagos , also known as bush babies or ''nagapies'' (meaning "night monkeys" in Afrikaans), are small nocturnal primates native to continental, sub-Sahara Africa, and make up the family Galagidae (also sometimes called Galagonidae). They are ...

s. The generic name, ''Anthrasimias'', referred to , Greek for

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

, because the fossils were found in a

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

and ,

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for monkey or ape.

References

External links

New euprimate postcrania from the early Eocene of Gujarat, India, and the strepsirrhine–haplorhine divergence

Literature cited

* Eocene mammals of Asia Fossil taxa described in 2005 Monotypic prehistoric primate genera Eocene primates Fossils of India Fossil taxa described in 2008 {{paleo-primate-stub

See also

References

External links

Literature cited