Distinguishing features of the " Cantius " / " Pelycodus " clade are the comparatively smaller hypocones and mesostyles.
2.
The distinguishing features of " Pelycodus " from " Cantius " are its anteroposteriorly compressed trigonid, its small paraconid on M 2 and lack of hypoconulid on M 1-2.
3.
However, there is almost no difference between the tarsal bones of the earliest " Cantius " and latest " Pelycodus ", indicating that their arboreal, quadrupedal locomotion was probably primitive.
4.
There is, however, a great deal of individual variation in the dentition of " Pelycodus ", which has made it hard to differentiate between " Pelycodus " and " Cantius " species.
5.
There is, however, a great deal of individual variation in the dentition of " Pelycodus ", which has made it hard to differentiate between " Pelycodus " and " Cantius " species.
6.
Overall, each genus was restricted to a small geographic region . " Cantius " was a northern ( Wyoming ) early Eocene genus, while the other two early Eocene genera, " Pelycodus " and " Copelemur ", occupied more southern habitats ( New Mexico ).
7.
Some have suggested that there were two separate immigrations of " Cantius ", one which gave rise to the larger " Pelycodus " and one which gave rise to the smaller lineages of " Copelemur ", " Smilodectes " and " Notharctus ".
8.
The shape of the molars indicates that " Pelycodus ", like " Cantius " and unlike later folivorous Notharctines such as " Notharctus " and " Smilodectes ", was most likely a frugivore, though perhaps not as strictly as " Cantius ".
9.
A study of four mammalian genera : " Hyopsodus ", " Pelycodus ", " Haplomylus " ( three from the Eocene ), and " Plesiadapis " ( from the Paleocene ) found that through a large number of stratigraphic layers and specimen sampling each group exhibited, " gradual phyletic evolution, overall size increase, iterative evolution of small species, and character divergence following the origin of each new lineage ".
10.
Others have suggested that a single lineage of " Cantius " split, with one branch leading to " Copelemur ", one to " Pelycodus ", and one gradually acquiring a fused mandible, one of the few diagnostic features between " Cantius " and " Notharctus " . " Smilodectes " either derived from the lineage that became " Notharctus " or from the more southern " Copelemur " lineage . " Hesperolemur ", a middle Eocene taxa, has only recently been described and is currently thought to be an immigrant species.
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