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'Plesiadapidae' is a family of plesiadapiform mammals related to primates known from the Paleocene and Eocene of North America, Europe, and Asia. Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level, McKenna, M. C, and S. K. Bell, , , Columbia University Press, 1997, ISBN 023111012X Eocene mammal faunas from northern Indo-Pakistan, Thewissen, J.G.M., Williams, E.M., and Hussain, S.T., , , Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2001 Plesiadapids were abundant in the late Paleocene, and their fossils are often used to establish the ages of fossil faunas. Cranial anatomy and evolution of early Tertiary Plesiadapidae (Mammalia, Primates), Gingerich, P.D., , , University of Michigan Papers on Paleontology, 1976

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Classification

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Classification

McKenna and Bell recognized two subfamilies ('Plesiadapinae' and 'Saxonellinae') and one unassigned genus (''Pandemonium'') within Plesiadapidae. More recently ''Saxonella'' (the only saxonelline) and ''Pandemonium'' have been excluded from the family, New specimens of ''Elphidotarsius russelli'' (Mammalia, ?Primates, Carpolestidae) and a revision of plesiadapoid relationships, Silcox, M.T., Krause, D.W., Maas, M.C., and Fox, R.C., , , Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2001 leaving only a redundant Plesiadapinae. Within the family, ''Pronothodectes'' is the likely ancestor of all other genera, while ''Plesiadapis'' may be directly ancestral to both ''Chiromyoides'' and ''Platychoerops''.

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