tarsioid

English

Noun

tarsioid (plural tarsioids)

1. A tarsier or extinct relative; any member of the infraorder Tarsiiformes.
   • 1953 October 19, Lincoln Barnett, The Age of Mammals, LIFE, page 95,

     Among the short-lived northerners were Metacheiromys, whose South American cousins survive today in the order of armadillos, anteaters and sloths, and the early primates — lemurs like Notharctus and tarsioids like Tetonius.

   • 1989, Pat Vickers Rich, Thomas H. V. Rich, Mildred Adams Fenton, Carroll Lane Fenton, The Fossil Book: A Record of Prehistoric Life, Revised edition, page 553,

     The living Tarsius, of Southeast Asia, is a lone leftover of a once diverse group of small primates, the tarsioids, which flourished during the Eocene in Europe, Asia, and North America.

   • 1991, Hominidae, entry in Joan C. Stevenson, Dictionary of Concepts in Physical Anthropology, page 201,

     Cope derived anthropoids from an extinct fossil tarsioid; he suggested that apes and humans evolved from a prosimian and skipped the monkey stage. Hubrecht noted that tarsioids were different from lemurs and more like higher primates (monkeys, apes, and humans).

Anagrams

• otariids, triodias