The first primates

What the evidence shows

• Teeth of Purgatorius, an early primate relative, come from rocks in Montana laid down within about 105,000 to 139,000 years after the impact.
• At least two species lived there, which suggests the primate line began before the impact.
• Within a million years, these animals were more common than archaic hoofed mammals in the same fossil beds, and dominated the role of tree-living omnivores and fruit-eaters.

What is uncertain

• Purgatorius is known mainly from teeth. It is not one proven human ancestor.

Sources

• Wilson Mantilla et al. 2021. Earliest Palaeocene purgatoriids and the initial radiation of stem primates. Royal Society Open Science. (opens the publisher’s site)

  What it supports: Teeth of Purgatorius, an early primate relative, from rocks laid down within a few hundred thousand years after the impact. The primate line probably began before the impact.

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