Purgatorius: earliest ancestor after dinosaur extinction. Plesiadapiforms are our closest cousins - nearly primates but not true primates Plesiadapiforms lack large brains and true orbital bars, some had claws Purgatorius was found in Hell Creek, Montana in layers dating to 100,000 years after the asteroid impact
Meet Purgatorius: our earliest known ancestor, discovered in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana. This tiny 15cm, 100g tree-dweller lived just 100,000 years after the asteroid that ended the dinosaurs. 🌳🐾
Key facts claimed:
- Plesiadapiforms are stem primates - early primates ancestral to modern primates
- Plesiadapiforms lack large brains and true orbital bars, some had claws
- Purgatorius was found in the Hell Creek Formation, Montana in deposits dating to ~100,000 years after the asteroid impact
- Purgatorius had primate-like back teeth and ankle bones for grasping
- It was a tree-dwelling (arboreal) animal about 15 cm long weighing no more than 100g
Key Facts
- Plesiadapiforms are our closest cousins - nearly primates but not true primates
- Plesiadapiforms lack large brains and true orbital bars, some had claws
- Purgatorius was found in Hell Creek, Montana in layers dating to 100,000 years after the asteroid impact
- Purgatorius had primate-like back teeth and ankle bones for grasping
- It was a tree-dwelling (arboreal) animal about 15 cm long weighing no more than 100g
- Purgatorius is considered our earliest known ancestor that survived the asteroid impact
- The angiosperm co-evolution hypothesis suggests primate evolution was driven by flowering plants
- Primates may have survived the nuclear winter by being generalists - eating insects, fruits, and flowers
Source: Who was our ancestor when the dinosaurs died? by Stefan Milo