Basal Monkeys from Egypt

Erik Seiffert, of Oxford University, published in "Science" the discovery of new Anthropoids from the oldest fossil locality (Birket Qarun Locality 2) in the famed Fayum Depression of Egypt. The new specimens adds to the growing record of small noctural basal anthropoids from Asia and Africa. The locality has been correlated to about 37 mya based on magnetostratigraphic evidence. The real socker of the paper is contained in the last paragraph "Finally, our phylogenetic analysis supports the hypothesis that the oldest known crown primate, the African late Paleocene genus Altiatlasius, is a primitive stem anthropoid." This would imply that Anthropoids arose much earlier than previously thought in Africa. It also leans support to the idea that true primates as a group may have arose first during the Paleocene in Africa before becoming widespread during the early Eocene.
(A personal side note: I was fortunte to work with Erik in 2002, when I joined my wife in Egypt. We spent many a happy day in the sand and sun of Birket Qarun Locality 2).

Seiffert, Erik R., Simons, Elwyn L., Clyde, William C., Rossie, James B., Attia, Yousry, Bown, Thomas M., Chatrath, Prithijit, Mathison, Mark E. 2005
Basal Anthropoids from Egypt and the Antiquity of Africa's Higher Primate Radiation
Science 310: 300-304 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1116569]