The fossils were found on Ellesmere Island, located in Nunavut, Canada, within sedimentary layers associated with the early Eocene epoch, potentially providing insight into how ecosystems may evolve in the years to come. Researchers at the University of Kansas have identified two sister species o
surviving six months of winter darkness in the extinct warm temperate ecosystem of Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada. Credit: Kristen Miller, Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas
“No primate relative has ever been found at such extreme latitudes,” Miller said. “They’re more usually found around the equator in tropical regions. I was able to do a phylogenetic analysis, which helped me understand how the fossils from Ellesmere Island are related to species found in midlatitudes of North America — places like New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. Even down in Texas, we have some fossils that belong to this family as well.
Miller and her co-authors believe food was much tougher to find during dim winter months when the Artic primate relatives likely were forced to consume harder material. Additionally, the researchers found both species were slightly larger than their closest relatives farther to the south — a group of primate cousins dubbed “plesiadapiforms.”
“It does show how something like a primate or a primate relative that’s specialized to one environment can change based off of climate change,” Miller said. “I think probably what it says is primates’ range could expand with climate change or move at least towards the poles rather than the equator. Life starts to get too hot there, perhaps we’ll have a lot of taxa moving north and south, rather than the intense biodiversity we see at the equator today.
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