Tarsiiformes are a group of primates that once ranged across Europe, northern Africa, Asia, and North America, but whose

extant Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...

species are all found in the islands of Southeast Asia.

Tarsier Tarsiers ( ) are haplorhine primates of the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all of its species living today are found in Maritime Southeast ...

s (family Tarsiidae) are the only living members of the infraorder; other members of Tarsiidae include the extinct '' Tarsius eocaenus'' from the Eocene, and ''

Tarsius thailandicus ''Tarsius'' is a genus of tarsiers, small primates native to islands of Southeast Asia. Until 2010, all tarsier species were typically assigned to this genus, but a revision of the family Tarsiidae restored the generic status of ''Cephalopachus' ...

'' from the Miocene. Two extinct genera, '' Xanthorhysis'' and '' Afrotarsius'', are considered to be close relatives of the living tarsiers, and are generally classified within Tarsiiformes, with the former grouped within family Tarsiidae, and the latter listed as '' incertae sedis'' (undefined).

Omomyid Omomyidae is a group of early primates that radiated during the Eocene epoch between about (mya). Fossil omomyids are found in North America, Europe & Asia making it one of two groups of Eocene primates with a geographic distribution spanning h ...

s are generally considered to be extinct relatives, or even ancestors, of the living tarsiers, and are often classified within Tarsiiformes. Other fossil primates, including Microchoeridae, Carpolestidae,McKenna, M.C., and Bell, S.K. 1997. ''Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level.'' Columbia University Press, New York, 337–340 pp. and Eosimiidae, have been included in this classification, although the fossil evidence is debated. Eosimiidae has also been classified under the infraorder Simiiformes (with

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

s and apes), and most experts now consider Eosimiidae to be stem simians. Likewise, Carpolestidae is often classified within the order

Plesiadapiformes Plesiadapiformes (" Adapid-like" or "near Adapiformes") is a group of Primates, a sister of the Dermoptera. While none of the groups normally directly assigned to this group survived, the group appears actually not to be literally extinct (in t ...

, a very close, extinct relative of primates.Fleagle, J. G. 2013
Primate Adaptation and Evolution
San Diego, Academic Press. These conflicting classifications lie at the heart of the debate over early primate evolution. Even the placement of Tarsiiformes within suborder

Haplorhini Haplorhini (), the haplorhines (Greek for "simple-nosed") or the "dry-nosed" primates, is a suborder of primates containing the tarsiers and the simians (Simiiformes or anthropoids), as sister of the Strepsirrhini ("moist-nosed"). The name is some ...

, as a sister group to the simians (monkeys and apes), is still debated.

Classification

Generally accepted members of this infraorder include the living tarsiers, the extinct omomyids, two extinct fossil genera, and two extinct fossil species within the genus ''Tarsius''. As haplorhines, they are more closely related to monkeys and apes than to the strepsirrhine primates, which include lemurs, galagos, and lorises. * Order Primates ** Suborder

Strepsirrhini Strepsirrhini or Strepsirhini (; ) is a Order (biology), suborder of primates that includes the Lemuriformes, lemuriform primates, which consist of the lemurs of Fauna of Madagascar, Madagascar, galagos ("bushbabies") and pottos from Fauna of A ...

: lemurs, lorises, and galagos ** Suborder

*** Infraorder Simiiformes: monkeys and apes *** Infraorder Tarsiiformes/Omomyiformes ****

Archicebidae ''Archicebus'' is a genus of fossil primates that lived in the early Eocene forests (~55.8–54.8 million years ago) of what is now Jingzhou in the Hubei Province in central China, discovered in 2003. The only known species, ''A. achil ...

**** Family

Tarsiidae Tarsiers ( ) are haplorhine primates of the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all of its species living today are found in Maritime Southeast ...

: tarsiers ***** Genus †'' Afrotarsius'' ***** Genus †'' Xanthorhysis'' ***** Genus '' Tarsius'' ***** Genus '' Cephalopachus'' ***** Genus '' Carlito

Footnotes

References

{{Authority control Tarsiers Extant Thanetian first appearances Taxa named by William King Gregory Taxa described in 1915