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Today: some of the taxa linking primates to ungulates in the LRT

Saturday, November 7, 2026 8:22

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Very few of these taxa are popular = well known to school children.
Early members of this primate-to-ungulate lineage (Figs 1, 2) start off as lithe and clever arboreal omnivores that over time and generations lost those talents as they evolved to become bigger, lumbering bear-like terrestrial herbivores.

Even later taxa (not shown here) ultimately give rise to giant aquatic hippos, desmostylians and mysticetes. On another derived branch giant hoofed giraffes, rhinos, elephants and three-toed horses = paraceratheres evolved as a variety of graviportal herbivores.

Apparently, no one predicted that ungulates would be derived from primates, even though some of the biggest, like Periphragnis (Fig 2), retained a big thumb. Other smaller, more typical taxa, like the oreodont, Merycoidodon, lost their thumbs as they evolved pre-hooves.

Fang-like canines are retained in some of the smallest clade members, tiny chevrotains = mouse deer. Sometimes only males developed fangs.

Thomashuxleya-externa-skull588 — Figure 1. Taxa in the transition from arboreal omnivores to terrestrial herbivores. Difficult to tell premolars from molars here.

The long primate tail is generally reduced
in terrestrial ancestors, but re-elongates once in Anopolotherium (Fig 3), a basal litoptern.

Thomashuxleya588 — Figure 2. Megaladapis, Thomashuxelya and Periphgragnis are big bulky taxa with thumbs (red arrows) that nest close to the rest of the primates and at the origin of hooved placental 1 herbivores in the LRT. Note Periphragnis is more than twice as long (9x as heavy) as Thomashuxleya.

Hooves developed
and digits were eliminated as the plantigrade hands and feet of ancestral adapids became increasingly digitigrade, culminating in the single hoof of the extant horse as this lineage had few other defenses against predators other than speed – until horns and antlers developed in derived taxa.

Figure 3. Anoplotherium was larger than its known relatives, Dacrytherium.

The question remains:
did these terrestrial taxa first appear before or after the asteroid event and the splitting of the continents? Notharctus is from North America. So is Merycoidodon. Megaladapis is known only from the refugium island of Madagascar, but evidently similar taxa linked Notharctus to Merycoidodon in North America. Thomashuxleya and Periphragnis are from South America. Anopolotherium is from Western Europe.

BTW, that means ungulates are derived primates, not fully formed at their first appearance.

Please let us all know
if I have overlooked a prior citation that linked these primates to these basal ungulates and I will promote that citation here.

References

wiki/Ungulate

Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2026/11/07/today-some-of-the-taxa-linking-primates-to-ungulates-in-the-lrt/

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