ABSTRACT
The primate family Adapidae is first known from the lower Eocene of Europe and North America. This chapter discusses some of the dental and cranial adaptations of Eocene Adapidae. By contrast with adapids, Eocene tarsiiform primates (Omomyidae) radiated primarily in the insectivorous-frugivorous adaptive zone. Adapids were relatively small when they first appeared in the European fossil record, but this distribution of body size in the family as a whole shifted rapidly to larger size. Comparing skulls of Adapis or Smilodectes with those of living lemurs or anthropoids, one of the most striking differences is in brain size. Adapis magnus and Adapis parisiensis both have dimorphic crania, with the putative males having larger skulls, relatively enlarged sagittal and nuchal crests, and robust flaring zygomatic arches. Richard F. Kay demonstrated that insectivorous and folivorous primates can be separated morphologically from frugivorous primates by the more crested structure of their molar teeth.
