Welcome to Adapis
Name Definition
the generic name Adapis is non-scientific and is sometimes used as a term for the hyrax since Cuvier (he named Adapis parisiensis which is the type species) thought the hyrax was related to Adapis
Name Given By
Georges Cuvier in 1821/A. parisiensis ; Hans Georg Stehlin in 1912/A. bruni ; Hooker in 1986/A. collinsonae ; Philip D. Gingerich in 1977/A. sudrei
Location
Paris in France, western Europe
Classification
Mammalia, Primates, Strepsirrhini, Adapidae, Adapinae
Size
unavailable
Temporal Range
Early - Late Eocene epoch of the Paleogene period, with the Eocene epoch being about 56 - 34 million years ago
Ecological niche
small arboreal folivore (a folivore is an animal that feeds on plant leaves)
Species/Sub Species
A. parisiensis (type species), A. collinsonae, A. bruni, A. sudrei
Diet
Adapis most likely lived in trees like most primates and would have consumed the foliage available on those trees
Introduction
Adapis is a genus of strepsirrhine primates that lived in France during the Eocene epoch of the Paleogene period. Adapis itself is a non-scientific name, though it is sometimes used as a term for the herbivore mammals hyraxes, because Georges Cuvier who named Adapis thought that it was related to the hyrax. The specific name for the type species, parisiensis, derives from the fact that A. parisiensis was discovered in Paris.
Given the temporal range of primates stretch back all the way to the Late Paleocene, Adapis was a pretty early primate living in the Eocene. Adapis is part of the primate suborder Strepsirrhini, which consists of lemurs, slow lorises, galagos/bush babies, as well as the pottos. All these primates, however, bear little resemblance to the primates of the Haplorhini, which consists of all the monkeys, apes, and tarsiers. This is because the strepsirhinnes have a longer snout than most primates which makes them look like a cross between monkeys and some kind of carnivoran mammal. They also have a rhinarium (the rhinarium is the furless skin which covers external openings of the nose in many mammals) which is similar to those of cats and dogs. Adapis is found to have been similar to the modern-day loris and would have had strong and prehensile digits on both their manus and pes (hands and feet), though, contrary to modern-day lorises, Adapis and other adapiform primates would have been mainly diurnal (meaning they are active in the daytime). Another reason adapiforms would have been mainly diurnal is the fact that nocturnal animals need larger eye sockets to store bigger pupils which let the light in their eyes. The relatively small eye sockets found in most adapiform skulls (proportionate to their skull size) would suggest that they were still mainly diurnal. Because of their prehensile feet and hands, they would have preferred forested environments where they could use these adaptations to live on trees and feast on the tree foliage, however this is only because Adapis and other adapiforms were the first primates to exceed a body mass of 500 grams. Larger animals usually have a slower metabolic rate, and the slower metabolic rate you have, the less calories you need, so since foliage and tree fruits carried less calories, the adapiforms were able to survive on tree foliage and fruits.