''Karanisia'' is an extinct genus of strepsirrhine

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians ( monkeys and apes, the latter includin ...

from middle

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

deposits in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

Classification

Two species are known, ''K. clarki'' and ''K. arenula''. Originally considered a

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

lorisid Lorisidae (or sometimes Loridae) is a family of strepsirrhine primates. The lorisids are all slim arboreal animals and comprise the lorises, pottos and angwantibos. Lorisids live in tropical, central Africa as well as in south and southeast Asia ...

, more comprehensive phylogenetic analyses suggest it is a more basal to crown lorisiformes.Gregg F. Gunnell; Doug M. Boyer; Anthony R. Friscia; Steven Heritage; Fredrick Kyalo Manthi; Ellen R. Miller; Hesham M. Sallam; Nancy B. Simmons; Nancy J. Stevens; Erik R. Seiffert (2018). "Fossil lemurs from Egypt and Kenya suggest an African origin for Madagascar's aye-aye". Nature Communications. 9: Article number 3193. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05648-w. ''K. clarki'' was described in 2003 from isolated teeth and jaw fragments found in Late Middle

(''c.'' 40 million years ago) sediments of the Birket Qarun Formation in the Egyptian

Faiyum Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop, ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum ...

. The specimens indicate the presence of a

toothcomb A toothcomb (also tooth comb or dental comb) is a dental structure found in some mammals, comprising a group of front teeth arranged in a manner that facilitates grooming, similar to a hair comb. The toothcomb occurs in lemuriform primates ( ...

, making it the earliest fossil primate to indisputably bear this trait, which is unique to all living strepsirrhines (

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are wet-nosed primates of the superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are endemic to the island of Madagas ...

loris Loris is the common name for the strepsirrhine mammals of the subfamily Lorinae (sometimes spelled Lorisinae) in the family Lorisidae. ''Loris'' is one genus in this subfamily and includes the slender lorises, ''Nycticebus'' is the genus conta ...

es, and

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). In 2010 a second species, ''K. arenula'', was described in the journal ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'' from Late Middle

rocks in

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3130075, from2=Q20718523 Prehistoric strepsirrhines Eocene primates Prehistoric primate genera Fossil taxa described in 2003 Eocene mammals of Africa