Description

Late Eocene (Ludian)

Phosphorites de Quercy

La Bouffie, Quercy, France

Very rare 8mm primate tooth.

Mammal, Primate.

Leptadapis is a genus of extinct primate of the Family Adapidae.  It lived at a time when the group was in decline in Europe due to cooler and drier climates.  It was lemur-like but larger and more robust than the modern ring-tailed lemur, weighing perhaps 8-9kg (around 17-20lbs).  Studies of its postcranial skeleton reveal it was probably more of a slow climber like a loris rather than a runner and leaper like a modern lemur.

The adapids died out in Europe at the end of the Eocene but might have survived into the Oligocene of Asia.  It is not clear what primate group is ancestral to modern lemurs.