ABSTRACT
Matt Cartmill has presented articulate and detailed series of arguments for a new delineation of the order Primates. Most primate radiations are known to have been primarily arboreal and show extremely varied feeding adaptations and catholic dietetic preferences from one species to another. In addition, whole radiations are known to be primarily phytophagous. The delineation of the order Primates in an arboreal milieu, but based on the alleged adaptations for visual-manual predation of the last common strepsirhine-haplorhine ancestor, as Cartmill suggests, therefore seems unsound. In suggesting the realignment of the nonprimate-primate boundary Cartmill concludes by saying that, 'Taxonomic boundaries must reflect more than mere phylogenetic affinity; they must also mark important adaptive shifts that underlie the evolutionary trends characteristic of a radiating higher taxon'.
