EARLIEST KNOWN SIMIAN PRIMATE FOUND IN ALGERIA

THE record of early fossil Simiiformes (Anthropoidea 1) from the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula has increased dramatically in recent years 2-6. We report here the discovery of a new, diminutive and much older (Early or Middle Eocene) simian from an Algerian locality, Glib Zegdou. This species is smaller than any other living or fossil African simiiform. Derived similarities shared with Aegyptopithecus suggest that the new genus is more closely related to propliopithecines than to oligopithecines, implying that these two subfamilies differentiated during the Early Eocene. The new discovery confirms predictions about the great antiquity of Simiiformes 7-9 and emphasizes a long and endemic African history for higher primates.