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Edworthia Lerbekmoi, a New Primitive Paromomyid Primate from the Torrejonian (Early Paleocene) of Alberta, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

Richard C. Fox ,
Craig S. Scott  and
Brian D. Rankin
Richard C. Fox
Affiliation:
1Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada,
Craig S. Scott
Affiliation:
2Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, P.O. Box 7500, Drumheller, Alberta T0J 0Y0, Canada,
Brian D. Rankin
Affiliation:
1Laboratory for Vertebrate Paleontology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada,
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Abstract

A primitive paromomyid plesiadapiform primate, Edworthia lerbekmoi new genus and species, is described from a recently discovered locality in the Paskapoo Formation, exposed at a road cut in Edworthy Municipal Park, Bow River Valley, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The new taxon, probably middle Torrejonian (To2) in age, is based on two dentary fragments containing well-preserved dentitions that bracket p2-4, m1-3. With the exception of the basal Paromomys, E. lerbekmoi differs from all other paromomyids in retaining p2, but p2 in the new paromomyid is single-rooted, not two-rooted as in Paromomys. E. lerbekmoi differs further from Paromomys in having an enlarged anterior alveolus for a tooth immediately anterior to p2, hypothesized to be il. Unlike other paromomyids with an enlarged il, however, this tooth in E. lerbekmoi was obliquely, not horizontally, oriented and its alveolus opens dorsally, in the alveolar row, not anteriorly, as in other paromomyids in which il is greatly enlarged. This suggests that E. lerbekmoi represents a previously unknown paromomyid lineage that evolved from an ancestor having obliquely oriented lower incisors as in the basal primate Purgatorius, not from an ancestor in which il was already subhorizontal in orientation, as in Paromomys. If this working hypothesis is correct or whether in the future some other evolutionary scenario will better account for the unique anterior dentition in E. lerbekmoi, the new paromomyid nonetheless demonstrates that crucial aspects of the earliest history of the important plesiadapiform family Paromomyidae remain to be discovered.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 84 , Issue 5 , September 2010 , pp. 868 - 878
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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