SKULLS AND ANTERIOR TEETH OF CATOPITHECUS (PRIMATES, ANTHROPOIDEA) FROM THE EOCENE AND ANTHROPOID ORIGINS

Recent finds of Catopithecus browni at an upper Eocene fossil site in the Fayum depression, Egypt, reveal features of the earliest higher pr imates. This basal anthropoidean shows a set of derived cranial and de ntal features that first occur in combination in this fossil. Old Worl d Anthropoidea or Catarrhini can now be traced back to Catopithecus in Egypt. Size, shape, orientation of incisors and canines, and other fe atures of the teeth and skull relate Catopithecus both to later Anthro poidea and to the early and middle Eocene cercamoniine adapoids. Most defining characteristics of higher primates cannot be documented earli er than the late Eocene of Africa.