Incredible Fossil Find in Colorado Could Change Primate Timeline
Indian Defence Review • • science
Key Points:
- Fossils of Purgatorius, the earliest known relative of primates, were discovered in Colorado’s Denver Basin, extending their known range 500 miles south from previous finds in Montana and Canada.
- The discovery challenges prior beliefs that early primates were confined to northern North America after the K/Pg extinction, suggesting a faster and broader post-extinction spread.
- Researchers used an intensive screen-washing technique to recover tiny teeth fossils, possibly representing a new early-diverging species within the Purgatorius genus.
- The findings imply that early primate absence in southern regions was likely due to fossil sampling gaps rather than ecological constraints following the asteroid impact.
- This discovery reshapes understanding of early primate biogeography
