Adapis
| Adapis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Adapis parisiensis skull remains, Natural History Museum, Berlin | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Primates |
| Suborder: | Strepsirrhini |
| Family: | †Adapidae |
| Subfamily: | †Adapinae |
| Genus: | †Adapis Cuvier, 1822 |
| Type species | |
| †Adapis parisiensis Cuvier, 1824 | |
| Other species | |
| Synonyms | |
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Genus synonymy
Synonyms of A. parisiensis Synonyms of A. laharpi
Dubious species
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Adapis is the type genus of the Adapidae, an extinct family of primates from the Palaeogene within the extinct infraorder Adapiformes. It was endemic to western Europe and lived from the Middle to Late Eocene. Adapis was first named in 1822 by the French palaeontologist Georges Cuvier, who studied incomplete jaws from Montmartre and thought it to have been a "pachyderm" similar to the artiodactyl Anoplotherium. Adapis parisiensis was recognized by Cuvier in 1824; several other species of Adapis were named in the late 19th and 20th centuries. In the 1870s, Adapis was recognized formally as a primate rather than a "pachyderm", with later researchers noting that Adapis was therefore the first fossil primate to have ever been taxonomically described. Palaeolemur and Leptadapis of the subfamily Adapinae, an endemic European primate subfamily, were previously reclassified as synonyms or subgenera of Adapis but were eventually recognized again as distinct genera from Adapis. As a result, there are six total species of Adapis, with A. parisiensis being the type species.
Adapis was a medium-sized adapid with weight estimates approximately ranging from 1 kg (2.2 lb) to 4 kg (8.8 lb) and notably has varying degrees of shared anatomical traits with the clade Lemuriformes (lemurs and lorisoids), which is generally classified into the suborder Strepsirrhini along with Adapiformes. Adapis differs from lemuriformes due to a more prominent facial skeleton, high sagittal crests, large zygomatic arches, robust mandibles, and relatively small orbits among various other traits. In contrast to its close relative Leptadapis, Adapis has smaller orbits with stronger degrees of frontation and orbital convergence; the degrees of frontation and orbital convergence are not as well-pronounced as in Palaeolemur. In terms of dentition, Adapis has reduced and incisor-like canine teeth and premolars that progressively increase in size and become molarized from the front to back premolars of the dental row. Its dental morphology could have allowed for a primarily folivorous (leaf-eating) diet with probably some degree of fruit-eating, although it does not show a large degree of specializations. Adapis also has postcranial similarities to contemporaneous adapiforms and extant strepsirrhines such as the degree of limb robustness but lacks close analogues. It had the shortest hand of all Eocene-aged adapiforms with small digits but longer metacarpal bones. Like in other adapids, its forelimbs and hindlimbs were about as equally long; its hand posture allows for the body to be parallel to the ground when walking. Typical of strepsirrhines, it was an arboreal quaduped; hypotheses of the locomotion of Adapis range from slow climber to a walker-runner, with some researchers expressing with uncertainty that different species could have had different forms of arboreal locomotion.
The unambiguous fossil range of adapines like Adapis is limited to the Middle to Late Eocene of western Europe, coinciding with geographical separation of the landmass from others as an archipelago. This was in contrast to the other adapid subfamily Caenopithecinae, which was also present in Africa and Asia but only had one genus present in Europe. Adapis coexisted with both other primates, namely fellow adapids and omomyids of the subfamily Microchoerinae. Climates in western Europe were tropical to subtropical up to the Late Eocene, although the end of the Middle Eocene had significant climactic and faunal shifts.