Athena Review Image Archive ™
Necrolemur antiquus skull
Skull of Necrolemur antiquus (Mus.Nat Hist.Paris, cast)
Necrolemur ("dead Lemur") was an Omomyid primate from the Middle to Late Eocene period, found in western Europe. The type species, N. antiquus, was defined in 1873 by Filhol. It is considered distantly ancestral to modern tarsiers.
The body of the adult Necrolemur was 25 cm long and probably resembled that of a tarsier. It was a night hunter and insectivore with sharp teeth, likely used to bite through the tough exoskeletons of insects. Like modern tarsiers, it had a short face, with large eyes and ears and a narrow gap between the eyes, and a relatively large brain. Also like tarsiers, it had long fingers and toes, and a lengthy tail used for balancing in tree climbing.
References:
Godinot, M. and M. Dagosto 1983. Astragalus of Necrolemur. Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 57, No. 6, pp. 1321–1324.
Rosenberger, A.L. 1985. In Favor of the Necrolemur-Tarsier Hypothesis, Folia Primatologica 1985;45:179-194,
Copyright © 1996-2020 Rust Family Foundation (All Rights Reserved).