''Phileosimias'' ("'' Eosimias'' ally") is an extinct

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 ...

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 with two species, ''P. kamli'' and ''P. bahuiorum'', that are believed to be amongst the early

simian 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 New World monkey, Platyrrhini (New World mon ...

s. Marivaux ''et al.'' announced in 2005 their discovery of fossils of two new species, ''Phileosimias kamali'' and ''Phileosimias brahuiorum'', found in the Bugti Hills of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. They concluded that ''Phileosimias'' are almost certainly early simians. However, they felt the fossil evidence (primarily dental specimens) was insufficient to categorise them as

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 ...

(along with other early simians) or whether they were sufficiently different to be placed into a separate group. The shapes of their

molars The molars or molar teeth are large, flat tooth, teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammal, mammals. They are used primarily to comminution, grind food during mastication, chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, '' ...

and premolars differ from species already classified as Eosimidae.
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The two species are ''Phileosimias brahuiorum'' and ''Phileosimias kamali'', which is slightly larger, but both are estimated to have weighed about 250 grams. They were extant during the

Early Oligocene 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 ...

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 ...

. Tuttle, Russell H. (17-Feb-2014). ''Apes and Human Evolution'', Harvard. .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q56291582 Prehistoric primate genera Eocene mammals of Asia