Abstract
The concept of “living fossil” as employed by Simpson (1953) and others has been somewhat altered for the purposes of this volume. As we understand it, the implication is of a living taxon that differs only slightly if at all in known morphology from an early fossil member of its clade, at whatever taxonomic rank. In this spirit, we will examine the “higher” or anthropoid primates to determine if any taxa, including some previously suggested, qualify for this status. Following Szalay and Delson (1979), the Order Primates is divided into three suborders, the extinct Plesiadapiformes, the Strepsirhini (lower primates), and the Haplorhini, including the infraorders Tarsiiformes (tarsiers and fossil relatives—see Schwartz, this volume), Platyrrhini (New World anthropoids), and Catarrhini (Old World anthropoids).
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Delson, E., Rosenberger, A.L. (1984). Are There Any Anthropoid Primate Living Fossils?. In: Eldredge, N., Stanley, S.M. (eds) Living Fossils. Casebooks in Earth Sciences. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8271-3_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8271-3_6
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