Using the fossil record to estimate the age of the last common ancestor of extant primates

@article{Tavar2002UsingTF,
  title={Using the fossil record to estimate the age of the last common ancestor of extant primates},
  author={Simon Tavar{\'e} and Charles R. Marshall and Oliver Will and C Soligo and Robert Denis Martin},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2002},
  volume={416},
  pages={726-729}
}
Divergence times estimated from molecular data often considerably predate the earliest known fossil representatives of the groups studied. For the order Primates, molecular data calibrated with various external fossil dates uniformly suggest a mid-Cretaceous divergence from other placental mammals, some 90 million years (Myr) ago, whereas the oldest known fossil primates are from the basal Eocene epoch (54–55 Myr ago). The common ancestor of primates should be earlier than the oldest known… Expand
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