<P> Lemurs are thought to have evolved during the Eocene or earlier, sharing a closest common ancestor with lorises, pottos, and galagos (lorisoids). Fossils from Africa and some tests of nuclear DNA suggest that lemurs made their way to Madagascar between 40 and 52 mya . Other mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence comparisons offer an alternative date range of 62 to 65 mya . An ancestral lemur population is thought to have inadvertently rafted to the island on a floating mat of vegetation, although hypotheses for land bridges and island hopping have also been proposed . The timing and number of hypothesized colonizations has traditionally hinged on the phylogenetic affinities of the aye - aye, the most basal member of the lemur clade . </P> <P> Having undergone their own independent evolution on Madagascar, lemurs have diversified to fill many niches normally filled by other types of mammals . They include the smallest primates in the world, and once included some of the largest . Since the arrival of humans approximately 2,000 years ago, lemurs are now restricted to 10% of the island, or approximately 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 square miles), with many facing extinction . </P> <P> Lemurs are primates belonging to the suborder Strepsirrhini . Like other strepsirrhine primates, such as lorises, pottos, and galagos, they share ancestral traits with early primates . In this regard, lemurs are popularly confused with ancestral primates; however, lemurs did not give rise to monkeys and apes, but evolved independently on Madagascar . </P> <P> Primates first evolved sometime between the Middle Cretaceous and the early Paleocene periods on either the supercontinent of Laurasia or in Africa . According to molecular clock studies, the last common ancestor of all primates dates to around 79.6 mya, although the earliest known fossil primates are only 54--55 million years old . The closest relatives of primates are the extinct plesiadapiforms, the modern colugos (commonly and inaccurately named "flying lemurs"), and treeshrews . Some of the earliest known true primates are represented by the fossil groups Omomyidae, Eosimiidae, and Adapiformes . </P>

Which of the following is humans closest living relative quizlet