page_title: Archicebus
section_title: Anatomy
hierarchical_section_title: Archicebus / Anatomy
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a watercolor illustration created by Mat Severson, which is based on a fossil of Archicebus achilles.
context_page_description: Archicebus is a genus of fossil primates that lived in the early Eocene forests of what is now Jingzhou in the Hubei Province in central China, discovered in 2003. The only known species, A. achilles, was a small primate, estimated to weigh approximately 20–30 grams, and is the only known member of the family Archicebidae. As of 2013, it is the oldest fossil haplorhine primate skeleton discovered, appearing to be most closely related to tarsiers and the fossil omomyids, although A. achilles is suggested to have been diurnal whereas tarsiers are nocturnal. Resembling tarsiers and simians, it was a haplorhine primate, and it also may have resembled the last common ancestor of all haplorhines as well as the last common ancestor of all primates. Its discovery further supports the hypothesis that primates originated in Asia, not in Africa.
context_section_description: A. achilles is estimated to have weighed 20 to 30 g (0.71 to 1.06 oz), making it comparable in size to today's smallest living primates, mouse lemurs.
caption: An artist's reconstruction of Archicebus achilles.
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