Dietary reconstruction of small-bodied omomyoid primates

Abstract This study examined the dietary adaptations of 38 species of small-bodied omomyoid primates known from North America and Europe. Two parameters were examined to investigate the dietary proclivities of these early primates: body mass and relative molar shearing crest development. Body mass was estimated from dental dimensions. Based upon size distributions of modern mammals of known diets, species with estimated masses of under 500 g were categorized as faunivores/frugivores. In order to partition this dietary grouping more precisely into faunivory and frugivory, measurements reflecting shearing crest development were compared to an extant prosimian base line. Based on these data it appears that the majority of the taxa sampled from this early primate radiation were primarily frugivorous.

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