Description

Late Eocene (Ludian)

Phosphorites de Quercy

La Bouffie, Quercy, France

Very rare 6mm 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, and one of the larger primates of its time, 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 in Asia.