Contra White et al 2023, Niptomomys is not a primate

Taxon exclusion
once again mars an excellent endocast study. White et al nest rodents basal to plesiadapiformes and primates (Fig 1) in their study of tiny Niptomomys (Fig 2, McKenna 1960, White et al 2023), which nests with Microsyops in the LRT and everywhere else.

The tradition of linking Plesiadapis and Daubentonia with Primates is invalidated by simply adding taxa.

By contrast,
the large reptile tree (LRT, 2201 taxa) does not nest primates with rodents, but with bats. Bats are not shown on the White et al cladogram (Fig 1). Glires is the proximal outgroup to the bats + primates clade. Plesiadapis (Plesiadapiformes) nests within Glires, not within Primates.

This problem goes back to Plesiadapis and Daubentonia
two primate-like members of Glires close to Carpolestes and Multituberculata in the LRT. So Niptomomys studies do not belong in the Journal of Human Evolution.

References
Bown TM and Gingerich PD 1972. Dentition of the early Eocene primates Niptomomys and Absarokius. Peabody Museum (Yale) Postilla 158:1-10.
Gunnell GF and Gingerich PD 1981. A new species of Niptomomys (Microsyopidae) from the Early Eocene of Wyoming. Folia primatologica 36:128–137.
McKenna MC 1960. Fossil Mammalia from the early Wasatchian Foru Mile fauna, Eocene of northwest Colorado. U of California Publications geological sciences 37:1–130.
White CL, Bloch JI, Morse PE and Silcox MT 2021. Virtual endocast of late Paleocene Niptomomys (Microsyopidae, Euarchonta) and early primate brain evolution. Journal of Human Evolution 175: 103303

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