TARSIOID PRIMATE FROM THE EARLY TERTIARY OF THE MONGOLIAN PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC

Abstract

A tiny tarsioid primate occurs in early Eocene sediments of the Naran Bulak Formation, southern Gobi Desert, Mongolian People's Republic. The new primate, Altanius orlovi, new genus and species, is an anaptomorphine omomyid and t,herefore belongs to a primarily American group of primates. Altanius is appar­ ently not a direct ancestor of the Asian genus Tarsius. American rather than Euro­ pean zoogeographic affinities are indicated, and this in turn supports the view that for a time in the earliest Eocene the climate of the Bering Route was sufficiently warm to support a primate smaller than Microcebus.