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Published online on July 17, 2006, 10.1073/pnas.0511296103
PNAS | July 25, 2006 | vol. 103 | no. 30 | 11223-11227


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BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES / EVOLUTION
Rapid Asia–Europe–North America geographic dispersal of earliest Eocene primate Teilhardina during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum

Thierry Smith*,{dagger}, Kenneth D. Rose{ddagger}, and Philip D. Gingerich§

*Department of Paleontology, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, 29 Rue Vautier, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium; {ddagger}Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205; and §Department of Geological Sciences and Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079

Edited by Jeremy A. Sabloff, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, PA, and approved June 9, 2006 (received for review December 29, 2005)

True primates appeared suddenly on all three northern continents during the 100,000-yr-duration Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum at the beginning of the Eocene, {approx}55.5 mya. The simultaneous or nearly simultaneous appearance of euprimates on northern continents has been difficult to understand because the source area, immediate ancestors, and dispersal routes were all unknown. Now, omomyid haplorhine Teilhardina is known on all three continents in association with the carbon isotope excursion marking the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. Relative position within the carbon isotope excursion indicates that Asian Teilhardina asiatica is oldest, European Teilhardina belgica is younger, and North American Teilhardina brandti and Teilhardina americana are, successively, youngest. Analysis of morphological characteristics of all four species supports an Asian origin and a westward Asia-to-Europe-to-North America dispersal for Teilhardina. High-resolution isotope stratigraphy indicates that this dispersal happened in an interval of {approx}25,000 yr. Rapid geographic dispersal and morphological character evolution in Teilhardina reported here are consistent with rates observed in other contexts.

carbon isotope excursion | euprimates | omomyids

Author contributions: T.S., K.D.R., and P.D.G. performed research; T.S., K.D.R., and P.D.G. analyzed data; T.S., K.D.R., and P.D.G. wrote the paper.

Conflict of interest statement: No conflicts declared.

This paper was submitted directly (Track II) to the PNAS office.

{dagger}To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: thierry.smith{at}naturalsciences.be

© 2006 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA


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