The

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Apidium'' (from Latin, a diminutive of the Egyptian bull god, Apis, as the first fossils were thought to be from a type of a cow) is that of at least three extinct

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 ...

s living in the early

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

, from 30 to 28 million years ago. ''Apidium'' fossils are common in the

Fayoum Faiyum ( ; , ) is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due to its strategic location. Name and etymology Originally f ...

deposits of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. Fossils of the earlier species, ''Apidium moustafai'', are rare; fossils of the later species ''Apidium phiomense'' are fairly common. ''Apidium'' and its fellow members of the

Parapithecidae Parapithecidae is an now extinct family of primates which lived in the Eocene and Oligocene periods in Egypt. Eocene fossils from Myanmar are sometimes included in the family in addition. They showed certain similarities in dentition to Condylar ...

family are stem anthropoids that possess all the hallmarks of modern

Anthropoidea The simians, anthropoids, or higher primates are an infraorder (Simiiformes ) of primates containing all animals traditionally called monkeys and apes. More precisely, they consist of the parvorders Platyrrhini (New World monkeys) and Catar ...

. Their ancestry is closely tied to the Eocene Asian group

Eosimiidae Eosimiidae is the possible family of extinct primates believed to be the earliest simians. Taxonomy When they were discovered, the possibility that eosimiids were outside and ancestral to simians was considered (Culotta 1992), but subsequent ...

Age

''Apidium'' fossils were originally thought to be between 35.4 and 33.3 million years old, based on initial analysis of the

Jebel Qatrani Formation The Jebel Qatrani Formation (also Gebel Qatrani, Gabal Qatrani or Djebel Qatrani) is a geologic formation located in the Faiyum Governorate of central Egypt. It is exposed between the Jebel Qatrani escarpment and the Qasr el Sagha escarpment, nor ...

in which they were found. However, analysis by Erik Seiffert in 2006 concluded that the age of the

should be revised. His assessment of more recent evidence indicates an age of between 30.2 and 29.5 million years ago, wholly within the

Rupelian The Rupelian is, in the geologic timescale, the older of two age (geology), ages or the lower of two stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Oligocene epoch (geology), Epoch/series (stratigraphy), Series. It spans the time between . It is preceded b ...

(early

)

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided b ...

Behaviour

The ''Apidium'' species were well adapted to life in what once were the tropical forests of North Africa. They lived in trees and apparently moved on top of tree limbs by a combination of quadrupedalism and leaping, much as do living squirrel monkeys of the genus ''Saimiri''. These primates appear to have been frugivorous and diurnal, with keen eyesight. Male ''Apidium'' were bigger than the females, which, by comparing them with living primates, suggests that they probably lived in groups, where a small number of males would have had control over several females. The males had large canine teeth. The tooth chipping patterns in ''Apidium phiomense'' indicate a predominantly soft fruit diet.

References

External links

Mikko's Phylogeny archiveBBC's Nature Fact FilesBritannica EncyclopediaPaleobiology Database
{{Taxonbar, from=Q773484 Eocene primates Oligocene primates Priabonian genus first appearances Rupelian genus extinctions Eocene mammals of Africa Oligocene mammals of Africa Taxa named by Henry Fairfield Osborn Fossil taxa described in 1908