Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Dental and postcranial remains (an atlas, carpus and metacarpus elements, and a part of the pelvic girdle) of an embrithopod mammal are described from Bir Om Ali, Tunisia, a new late Eocene locality. The enamel microstructure of a tooth fragment found in association shows 'arsinoitheriid radial enamel', an enamel condition which is characteristic of Arsinoitherium (Arsinoitheriidae, Embrithopoda). Although the postcranial elements slightly differ in size and morphology from those of Arsinoitherium zitteli (late Eocene to early Oligocene), we tentatively refer this new Eocene Tunisian material to that genus. These fossils represent the first known embrithopod from the Eocene of Tunisia.
ISSN: 0899-5362

hal-00903435
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00903435
DOI : 10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2013.07.010

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Public Library of Science
Résumé : International audience
Molecular clock estimates of crown strepsirhine origins generally advocate an ancient antiquity for Malagasy lemuriforms and Afro-Asian lorisiforms, near the onset of the Tertiary but most often extending back to the Late Cretaceous. Despite their inferred early origin, the subsequent evolutionary histories of both groups (except for the Malagasy aye-aye lineage) exhibit a vacuum of lineage diversification during most part of the Eocene, followed by a relative acceleration in diversification from the late Middle Eocene. This early evolutionary stasis was tentatively explained by the possibility of unrecorded lineage extinctions during the early Tertiary. However, this prevailing molecular view regarding the ancient origin and early diversification of crown strepsirhines must be viewed with skepticism due to the new but still scarce paleontological evidence gathered in recent years.
ISSN: 1932-6203

hal-00940986
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00940986
DOI : 10.1371/journal.pone.0080778

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : International audience
Although advanced anthropoid primates (i.e., Simiiformes) are recorded at the end of the Eocene in North Africa (Proteopithecidae, Parapithecidae, and Oligopithecidae), the origin and emergence of this group has so far remained undocumented. The question as to whether these primates are the result of a monophyletic radiation of endemic anthropoids in Africa, or several Asian clades colonizing Africa, is a current focus of paleoprimatology. In this article, we report the discovery of a new anthropoid from Djebel el Kébar in central Tunisia, dating from the late middle Eocene (Bartonian). This taxon, Amamria tunisiensis, new genus and species, currently known by only one isolated upper molar, is among the most ancient anthropoids to be recorded in Africa thus far. Amamria displays a suite of dental features that are primarily observed in Eosimiiformes (stem Anthropoidea). However, it is not allocated to any known family of that group (i.e., Asian Eosimiidae and Afro-Asian Afrotarsiidae) inasmuch as it develops some dental traits that are unknown among eosimiiforms, but can be found in African simiiform anthropoids such as proteopithecids and oligopithecids. With such a mosaic of dental traits, Amamria appears to be a structural intermediate, and as such it could occupy a key position, close to the root of the African simiiforms. Given its antiquity and its apparent pivotal position, the possibility exists that Amamria could have evolved in Africa from Asian eosimiiform or Asian "proto"-simiiform ancestors, which would have entered Africa sometime during the middle Eocene. Amamria could then represent one of the earliest offshoots of the African simiiform radiation. This view would then be rather in favor of the hypothesis of a monophyletic radiation of endemic simiiform anthropoids in Africa. Finally, these new data suggest that there must have been at least two Asian anthropoid colonizers of Africa: the afrotarsiids and the ancestor of Amamria.
ISSN: 0002-9483

hal-01053704
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01053704
DOI : 10.1002/ajpa.22523