Posted on 11/12/2007 11:42:41 PM PST by SunkenCiv
A new genetic study claims to have settled a long-standing debate about which living group of mammals is most closely related to primates, which include monkeys, apes, and lemurs. Our nearest nonprimate relatives are not tree shrews as once thought, researchers say -- but another group of tree-dwelling mammals known as colugos, also known as flying lemurs... squirrel-size creatures that live in the rain forests of Southeast Asia. Only two species are known to exist... Previous DNA-based studies had suggested that primates, tree shrews, and colugos are closely related, forming a single evolutionary grouping that can be traced back to a common ancestral species... The new study finds that the ancestors of tree shrews split off first, and then the primate and colugo lineages diverged. That means that colugos are primates' closest evolutionary cousins. "Our molecular trees indicate that [primates and colugos] split approximately 86 million years ago, more than 30 million years before modern primates or colugos appear in the fossil record," said study co-author William Murphy.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1461125/posts?page=36#36
Flying lemurs aren’t real lemurs; they aren’t even real primates. However, they are our closest living non-primate relatives, if you don’t consider tree shrews to be actual primates.
36 posted on 08/11/2005 11:47:21 AM EDT by RightWingAtheist
[snip] on the order of 45 to 65 million years ago, during the Paleocene and Eocene epochs, the fossil record shows Devon Island... forests and meadows supported flying lemurs [end]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1201791/posts
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The Flying Lemurs — one helluva circus family!
Oh. THOSE flying lemurs.
thought they were talking about a circus high-wire act...
beat me to it
Looks like something very nasty hit Devon Island and melted it...
The Haughton Astrobleme. :’)
“Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a- Wait a minute, you’re not Rocky...”
The crash meant a quick end to the plants and animals that lived on Devon Island at the time.
The fossil record shows that the site was populated with pine and deciduous trees, giant rabbits and a species of small rhinoceros. This is quite a curiosity in itself, considering that 23 million years ago, the island was already high in the Arctic, and so experienced long seasons of constant sunlight or continuous darkness.
Really?
“Not bloody likely!” ;’)
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