Sixty years ago, Adolph Schultz attempted to collect all available information on the ages at which primates erupt their teeth. His search recovered complete data for only two nonhuman primate species, both macaques (Schultz, 1935). Although dozens of studies of individual primate species have appeared since, many remain scattered in the primary literature. The present study takes another step towards the task that Schultz began by gathering together all data on ages of tooth eruption for every primate species that could be located, from published and unpublished sources. After adding new data, at least one datum on tooth eruption can be described for 46 species representing all primate families. Data for 36 species are presented in an extended format with recommendations to help standardize future data collection and reporting. The compendium makes it possible to describe, for the first time, the basic outline of the eruption of teeth of primates from birth to adulthood. A preliminary analysis finds: many primates are born with teeth already erupted and only great apes and humans typically remain toothless after a month of postnatal life. Eruption of the dentition is tightly integrated overall, but the first few teeth to erupt give unique information about species life history, probably reflecting infant precociality. Mean age of tooth eruption is strongly related to size, measured as mean adult body weight (r = 0.72–0.92) or mean adult brain weight (r = 0.82–0.97). Important gaps remain in our knowledge of great apes, gibbons, colobus monkeys, folivorous cebids, and lorises. For many species, day‐of‐birth records or brief longitudinal studies extending only weeks or months could provide extremely valuable life‐history data. Over‐all, eruption of teeth offers an excellent method to gauge both the maturation of individuals and to compare the life histories of species.

New specimens of middle Eocene Basilosaurus isis from Egypt include the first functional pelvic limb and foot bones known in Cetacea. These are important in corroborating the intermediate evolutionary position of archaeocetes between generalized Paleocene land mammals that used hind limbs in locomotion and Oligocene-to-Recent whales that lack functional pelvic limbs. The foot is paraxonic, consistent with derivation from mesonychid Condylarthra. Hind limbs of Basilosaurus are interpreted as copulatory guides.

The best European locality for complete Eocene mammal skeletons is Grube Messel, near Darmstadt, Germany. Although the site was surrounded by a para-tropical rain forest in the Eocene, primates are remarkably rare there, and only eight fragmentary specimens were known until now. Messel has now yielded a full primate skeleton. The specimen has an unusual history: it was privately collected and sold in two parts, with only the lesser part previously known. The second part, which has just come to light, shows the skeleton to be the most complete primate known in the fossil record. We describe the morphology and investigate the paleobiology of the skeleton. The specimen is described as Darwinius masillae n.gen. n.sp. belonging to the Cercamoniinae. Because the skeleton is lightly crushed and bones cannot be handled individually, imaging studies are of particular importance. Skull radiography shows a host of teeth developing within the juvenile face. Investigation of growth and proportion suggest that the individual was a weaned and independent-feeding female that died in her first year of life, and might have attained a body weight of 650–900 g had she lived to adulthood. She was an agile, nail-bearing, generalized arboreal quadruped living above the floor of the Messel rain forest. Darwinius masillae represents the most complete fossil primate ever found, including both skeleton, soft body outline and contents of the digestive tract. Study of all these features allows a fairly complete reconstruction of life history, locomotion, and diet. Any future study of Eocene-Oligocene primates should benefit from information preserved in the Darwinius holotype. Of particular importance to phylogenetic studies, the absence of a toilet claw and a toothcomb demonstrates that Darwinius masillae is not simply a fossil lemur, but part of a larger group of primates, Adapoidea, representative of the early haplorhine diversification.