Editing Tarsier (section)

===Fossil record===
Fossils of [[tarsiiform]] primates have been found in Asia, Europe, and North America (with disputed fossils from Northern Africa), but extant tarsiers are restricted to several Southeast Asian islands. The fossil record indicates that their [[dentition]] has not changed much, except in size, over the past 45 million years.

Within the family Tarsiidae, there are two extinct genera—''[[Xanthorhysis]]'' and ''[[Afrotarsius]]''; however, the placement of ''Afrotarsius'' is not certain,<ref name=Hartwig1>{{cite book | last1 = Gunnell | first1 = G. | last2 = Rose | first2 = K. | editor1-last = Hartwig | editor1-first = W.C. | title = The Primate Fossil Record | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2002 | isbn = 978-0-521-66315-1 | chapter = Tarsiiformes: Evolutionary History and Adaptation}}</ref> and it is sometimes listed in its own family, [[Afrotarsiidae]], within the infraorder Tarsiiformes,<ref name=McKenna_Bell>McKenna, M.C., and Bell, S.K. 1997. ''Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level.'' Columbia University Press, New York, 337–340 pp. {{ISBN|0-231-11013-8}}</ref> or considered an [[Simian|anthropoid]] primate.<ref name=sirindhornae/>

So far, four fossil species of tarsiers are known from the fossil record:
* ''[[Tarsius eocaenus]]'' is known from the [[Middle Eocene]] in [[China]].<ref name=Hartwig1/><ref name=2006Rossie>{{cite journal | last1 = Rossie | first1 = J.B. | last2 = Ni | first2 = X. | last3 = Beard | first3 = K.C. | title = Cranial remains of an Eocene tarsier | year = 2006 | url = http://www.pnas.org/content/103/12/4381.full.pdf | journal = PNAS | volume =  103| issue = 12 | pages = 4381–4385 | pmid = 16537385|doi=10.1073/pnas.0509424103 | pmc=1450180| doi-access = free }}</ref>
* ''[[Hesperotarsius|Hesperotarsius thailandicus]]'' lived during the [[Early Miocene]] in northwestern [[Thailand]].<ref name=Hartwig1/><ref name=Nowak>{{cite book | last = Nowak | first = R.M. | publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press | title = Walker's Mammals of the World | url = https://archive.org/details/walkersmammalsof0002nowa | url-access = registration | edition = 6th | year = 1999 | isbn = 978-0-8018-5789-8 | pages = 94–97}}</ref>
* ''[[Hesperotarsius|Hesperotarsius sindhensis]]'' lived during the [[Miocene]] in [[Pakistan]].<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Zijlstra | first1 = Jelle S. | last2 = Flynn | first2 = Lawrence J. | last3 = Wessels | first3 = Wilma | year = 2013 | title = The westernmost tarsier: A new genus and species from the Miocene of Pakistan | journal = Journal of Human Evolution | volume = 65 | issue = 5| pages = 544–550 | doi = 10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.06.015 | pmid=23928350| bibcode = 2013JHumE..65..544Z }}</ref>
* ''[[Tarsius sirindhornae]]'' lived during the [[Middle Miocene]] in northern Thailand.<ref name=sirindhornae>{{cite journal | author = Chiamanee, Y., Lebrun, R., Yamee, C., and Jaeger, J.-J. | year = 2010 | title = A new Middle Miocene tarsier from Thailand and the reconstruction of its orbital morphology using a geometric–morphometric method | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences | volume = 278| issue = 1714| pages = 1956–1963| doi = 10.1098/rspb.2010.2062 | pmid=21123264 | pmc=3107645}}</ref>

The genus ''Tarsius'' has a longer fossil record than any other primate genus, but the assignment of the Eocene and Miocene fossils to the genus is dubious.<ref>{{cite book | last = Simons | first = E.L. | year = 2003 | title = Tarsiers: past, present, and future | editor1-last = Wright | editor1-first = P.C. | editor2-last = Simons | editor2-first = E.L. | editor3-last = Gursky | editor3-first = S. | chapter = The Fossil Record of Tarsier Evolution | publisher = Rutgers University Press | isbn = 978-0-8135-3236-3}}</ref>