Long Before the Arrival of Humans, a Strange Little Primate Populated the Western United States

The first primates arrived in the Americas about 56 million years ago and prospered for a time, but it wasn’t to be.

They died out some 34 million years ago, after the Eocene-Oligocene extinction event, during which the planet became cooler and drier. Half of all mammal genera died around the globe.

But somehow, this set the stage for a lemur-like animal known as Ekgmowechashala to establish itself in the Great Plains of the present-day U.S.

Scientists have disputed how to classify the odd-looking creature for decades, but a rough consensus has settled on calling it a primate, making it…