PHYLOGENETIC AND BIOGEOGRAPHIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TARSIIFORM PRIMATE ASIOMOMYS-CHANGBAICUS FROM THE EOCENE OF JILIN PROVINCE, PEOPLES-REPUBLIC-OF-CHINA

A newly discovered Paleogene mammal locality in Jilin Province, People's Republic of China has yielded a dentary fragment of the tarsiiform primate Asiomomys changbaicus. Unlike most other Eocene primates from Asia, the phylogenetic position of A. changbaicus is well resolved: it represents the sister taxon of Stockia powayensis, a probable washakiin omomyid from the early Uintan of southern California. The phylogenetic position and geographic provenance of A. changbaicus demonstrate the feasibility of primate dispersal between North America and Asia during middle Eocene time. This finding establishes a biogeographic link between the most diverse known radiation of tarsiiform primates, which occurred in the Eocene of North America, and the present range of the genus Tarsius. Accordingly, biogeographic considerations no longer detract from the hypothesis of a close phylogenetic relationship between Tarsius and a clade of North American Omomyidae.