''Nosmips aenigmaticus'' is a rare fossil

primate Primates are a diverse order (biology), order of mammals. They are divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include the Tarsiiformes, tarsiers and ...

known only from 12 teeth. Most teeth were found at a site in the Fayum Depression about outside

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

. ''Nosmips aenigmaticus'' probably lived 37 million years ago in Africa and has not been successfully classified within any group of primates. In particular, it is distinct from the three main branches of primate found in Africa at the time -

anthropoids The simians, anthropoids, or higher primates are an infraorder (Simiiformes ) of primates containing all animals traditionally called monkeys and apes. More precisely, they consist of the parvorders New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) and Catarrh ...

, adapiforms and lemuriforms. It is weakly associated with the

Eosimiidae Eosimiidae is the possible family of extinct primates believed to be the earliest simians. Taxonomy When they were discovered the possibility that Eosimians were outside and ancestral to Simians was considered (Culotta 1992), but subsequent w ...

. Its

premolar The premolars, also called premolar teeth, or bicuspids, are transitional teeth located between the canine and molar teeth. In humans, there are two premolars per quadrant in the permanent set of teeth, making eight premolars total in the mouth ...

s are specialised and the tooth enamel displays extensive signs of pitting, which would appear to be consistent with a diet of either seeds or fruits with hard pits.

Name

''Nosmips'' is an anagram of Simpson. The name was chosen to honour paleontologist and anagram enthusiast

George Gaylord Simpson George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October 6, 1984) was an American paleontologist. Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century, and a major participant in the modern synthesis, contributing '' Tempo ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7061831, from2=Q21368935 Eocene primates Eocene mammals of Africa Prehistoric primate genera