The evolutionary journey from primitive plesiadapiforms to early primates during the Paleocene and Eocene epochs represents a critical chapter in mammalian history.

References [1] Virtual Endocast of Late Paleocene Niptomomys and Early Primate Brain Evolution. Journal of Human Evolution (2023). [2] The Oldest Known Primate Skeleton and Early Haplorhine Evolution.

Researchers Discovered 60-Million-Year-Old Fossil of Giant Possum in Texas's Big Bend National Park Texas is now home not ...

Learn more about the discovery of a giant possum in Big Bend National Park and how it’s connected to early primate evolution.

Kristen Miller, lead author of the study and a doctoral student at KU’s Biodiversity Institute, analyzed the Texan fossils to ...

University of Kansas paleontologists discover giant hedgehog-sized marsupial relative from Paleocene Texas fossil collections ...

They’re not, technically speaking, primates, but they're very close to the ancestry of living and fossil primates. These marsupials are probably ecological analogues of early primates.

More information: Kristen Miller et al, Biogeographic and biostratigraphic implications of a new species of Swaindelphys (Mammalia, Metatheria) from the Paleocene (Tiffanian) Black Peaks Formation ...

A newly described ancient mammal discovered in Texas is turning heads—not just for its size, but for what it reveals about ...

The new fossil is the largest marsupial -- in terms of body and size -- found so far in North America from the Paleocene period, Chris Beard, senior curator with KU’s Biodiversity Institute ...