Primate Evolution

The geologists divided the periods of earth into 4 eras. They are

1. Azoic era(4500-3500 mya)-No life

2. Protozoic(3500-600 mya)-Unicellular

3. Paleozoic(600-230 mya)-Piesces,Amphibians,Primitive Reptiles

· Cambrian period

· Ordovician

· Silurium

· Devonian

· Carbiniferous

· Permean

4. Mesozoic(230-65 mya)

· Triassic

· Jurassic

· Cretaceous(135 mya)-Purgatorius evolved(75 mya)

5. Cenozoic(65 my onwards)

Ø Teritiary period

· Palaeocene(65-54 mya)-Archaic primates-

· Eocene(54-36 mya)-True primates-

· Oligocene(36-23 mya)-New and Old world Monkeys

· Miocene(23-5 mya)-Dryopithecus,Dendropithecus-16 mya,Ramapithecus(adapted to terrestrial as well)-10 mya

· Pliocene(5-2 mya)-Giant apes in china and india-gigantopithecines

Ø Quarternary Period

· Pleistocene(2m-10kya)-Homonid evolution-australopithecus to Homo sapien sapiens

· Holocene(10k-present)

Pliocene-Plesiadapis, Purgatorius, navajovius, Carbolestis, Plesiolestis

Eocene-Adapis,Necrolemus,Omyms,Smilodectus,Notharctus

Oligocene-New world and old world monkeys,fossils at fayum beds,Egypt,South America and eastern Africa