Carpolestes

Carpolestes is a genus of extinct primate-like mammals from the late Paleocene of North America. It first existed around 58 million years ago. The three species of Carpolestes appear to form a lineage, with the earliest occurring species, C. dubius, ancestral to the type species, C. nigridens, which, in turn, was ancestral to the most recently occurring species, C. simpsoni.[1]

Carpolestes
Temporal range: late Paleocene[1]
Carpolestes simpsoni
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: †Carpolestidae
Genus: †Carpolestes
Simpson, 1928
Type species
†Carpolestes nigridens
Paleospecies[1]

†C. dubius Jepsen, 1930
†C. nigridens Simpson, 1928
†C. simpsoni Bloch and Gingerich, 1998
†C. twelvemilensis Mattingly, Sanisidro & Beard, 2017

Carpolestes had flattened fingernails on its feet but with claws on its fingers.[2] Morphologically it supports Robert Sussman's theory[3] of the co-evolution of tropical fruiting Angiosperms and early primates where Angiosperms provide nectar and fruits in return for dispersing the seed for tropical rainforest plans. It appears to have been a distant relative of the Plesiadapiforms such as Plesiadapis.

References
  1. Bloch, J.I.; D.C. Fisher; K.D. Rose & P.D. Gingerich (2001). "Stratocladistic analysis of Paleocene Carpolestidae (Mammalia, Plesiadapiformes) with description of a new late Tiffanian genus". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 21 (1): 119–131. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2001)021[0119:SAOPCM]2.0.CO;2.
  2. Helen Pilcher "Flower CHild" in New Scientist, The Collection, The Human Story (2014)
  3. Sussman, Robert “Primate rigins and te Evotion of Angiosperms” in American Journal of Primatology Vol 23, No.4 (1991) pp209-223


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