During 66 mya in the Paleocene scientists believe the first primates may have evolved.
<h3>Evolution of Primates</h3>
Most likely, a small, nocturnal, insectivorous animal that gave rise to the first primates. The closest extant cousins of primates are tree shrews and colugos, also referred to as flying lemurs.
The tree shrew is cited as a living example of what the ancestors of primates, or the earliest primates, would have looked like.
The most ancient ape discovered by reliable fossil evidence is Dryomomys. Only isolated teeth and jaw fragments from Purgatorius, the earliest known primate, which dates back 65 million years, are known.
In the primate suborder Strepsirhini, the Eocene primates split into two groups at an early stage: the omomyids and the adapids, collectively known as the prosimians.
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