Carpolestes

Carpolestes Temporal range: late Paleocene[1]
Carpolestes simpsoni
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	†Plesiadapiformes
Superfamily:	†Carpolestoidea
Family:	†Carpolestidae
Genus:	†Carpolestes Simpson, 1928
Type species
†Carpolestes nigridens
Paleospecies[1]
†C. dubius Jepsen, 1930 †C. nigridens Simpson, 1928 †C. simpsoni Bloch and Gingerich, 1998

Carpolestes is a genus of extinct primate-like mammals from the late Paleocene of North America. It first existed around 58 million years ago. The three species of Carpolestes appear to form a lineage, with the earliest occurring species, C. dubius, ancestral to the type species, C. nigridens, which, in turn, was ancestral to the most recently occurring species, C. simpsoni.^[1] It had flattened fingernails on its feet but with claws on its fingers.^[2] Morphologically it supports Robert Sussman´s theory^[3] of the co-evolution of tropical fruiting Angiosperms and early primates where Angiosperms provide nectar and fruits in return for dispersing the seed for tropical rainforest plans. It appears to have been a distant relative of the Plesiadapiforms such as Plesiadapis.

References