Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Ekgmowechashala

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Kingdom
  
Animalia

Family
  
See text.

Phylum
  
Chordata

Order
  
Primate

Class
  
Mammalia

Scientific name
  
Ekgmowechashala philotau

Rank
  
Species

Genus
  
Ekgmowechashala Macdonald, 1963

Similar
  
Primate, Rooneyia, Tetonius, Omomyidae, Necrolemur

Ekgmowechashala (Sioux: "little cat man" or "little fox man") is an extinct genus of primate. With a weight of approximately five pounds, around a foot tall and resembling a lemur, it is the only known North American primate of its time; it lived during the late Oligocene and early Miocene. Its classification remains problematic, and it has been classified as a member of the extinct family Omomyidae (related to tarsiers), the equally extinct Plagiomenidae (related to colugos), and the Adapiformes, the extinct relatives of lemurs and other strepsirrhines. Dentitions from Oregon suggest that it was related to Rooneyia, though some scientists saw in them a likeness to Necrolemur and Microchoerus.

The shape of its teeth, and their likeness to those of raccoons, indicate that it ate soft fruit provided by the warm forests of the Rocky Mountains during the early Miocene.

Fossil evidence of Ekgmowechashala was discovered on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, an Oglala Sioux Native American reservation in South Dakota. Molars were found in 1981 in the basin of John Day River, and these are in the collection of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture; in the summer of 1997 John Zancanella of the Bureau of Land Management found a lower molar in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The material from Oregon and South Dakota is attributed to the only known species, Ekgmowechashala philotau. A single Ekgmowechashala tooth from the Toledo Bend Ranch Local Fauna of far eastern Texas may represent a second species.

References

Ekgmowechashala Wikipedia