Pokemuroidea

POKEMUROIDEA

Pokemuroids represent another group of Spec mammals that are almost, but not quite, the familiar mammals of Home-Earth. While these furry little tree-climbers are technically primates, they differ significantly from RL's apes and monkeys, although they are related to the lemurs (albeit distantly) as adapids.

Studying the fossil record, it has become clear the the formal clade Adapidae is, in fact, paraphyletic, incorporating a range of unrelated groups. Although using the term 'adapids' (with a small a) is permissible as a reference to all lemurs, lorises, pokemuroids, and related forms, formal Adapidae is not a very useful term, taxonomically. This is because 'adapids' are split into two distinct groups, not particularly related. One includes the lorises and lemurs of both Spec and Home-Earth, while the other (extinct in our own timeline) produced the pokemuroids.
Pokemuroids have lived in Asia since the Eocene, when they emerged from a complex of related forms, many similar to Plesiadapsis, an early primate of our own timeline. The pokemuroids seem to have passed relatively unscathed through the catastrophe at the end-Eocene, and quickly spread to Europe and North America, taking control of the majority of the arboreal niches in the Northern Hemisphere.
Like other primates, pokemuroids possess forward-facing eyes for binocular vision, opposable thumbs on hands and feet, nails rather than claws, a post-orbital bar (a bone that creates the eye socket), and vertical incisors. However, the foramen magnum, the large hole in the skull to which the spinal chord is attached, does not project downward from the skull as in other primates, but straight back, as in most other mammals. Thus, pokemuroids can not stand as lemurs (and humans) do, spine perpendicular to the ground, head angled forward. Instead, pokemuroids hold themselves like cats or dogs, with the spine parallel to the ground, with the head part of the same axis. In the 3-dimensional environment of the trees, this fact makes little difference, but the orientation of the foramen magnum means that on the ground, pokemuroids scamper on all fours, they do not hop on their hind legs like many other primates.
POKEMURIDAE (pokemuses)

(fig. 1) The Chinese pokemus (Pokemus scansorius). A typical representative of the clade.

Pokemuridae encompasses the greatest pokemuroid diversity, with species across Eurasia and Africa. These creatures range in size from a minuscule 90 grams to a relatively hefty 3 kilograms, and in behavior across the spectrum of omnivory from fruit-eater to ferocious carnivore.
True pokemurids are distinguished from their relatives mostly in their dentition. The teeth of a pokemurid are quite odd, with large, grinding molars, tiny canines (even in carnivorous species) and large, gnawing incisors. The arrangement is similar to that of the aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascarensis), an RL lemur, though this fact is due to convergence, rather than any close affinity between the two groups. Most pokemus species use their incisors to pierce the armor of insects, but some gnaw fruits and nuts in the manner of xenotheridians (or Home-Earth rodents). In the carnivorous species, the upper incisors grow into a sharp pick with which they dispatch their prey.
In Spec's fossil record, pokemurids first turn up in the Miocene, though they probably evolved sooner, and spread to take over the niches of the other pokemus-like primates of the time. They lived in Asia and North America, and soon moved into Europe and Africa, where they quickly established themselves in most of the same forms we see today. The only major perturbation in pokemurid evolution occurred at the end of the Pliocene, when the encroaching Ice Age killed pushed all eurasian pokemusids into India and the Middle East. North America was hit even harder, and as South America was already home to a variety of tree-climbing marsupials and lorises, pokemuses could not migrate south and today are completely died out in the New World. Today, a single pokemus species, Macropokemus americensis, makes its home in North America, the result of a Pleistocene migration across Beringia.

The lion-tailed pokemus is an arboreal, omnivore that lives in southern Europe and the Middle East. The first pokemus species to be named, this little animal is similar to the lemurs of Madagascar, but of a different lineage entirely.
The diet of the lion-tailed pokemus consists mostly of insects and small animals, which it stalks, catlike, from hidden branches. Pouncing with lightning speed, this little pokemus snatches the bird or lizard with its nimble, human-like hands. Retaining a firm grip on its branch with a similarly dexterous pair of feet, the lion-tail quickly kills its prey with a sharp bite to the base of the skull before it begins to feed.
Lion-tiled pokemuses are monogamous, mature males and females forming hunting pairs that stay together for life. Young lion-tails remain with their parents for two years, learning to hunt before they set off to find mates of their own.

(fig. 2) Lion-tailed pokemus, Pokemus pokemus (Southern Europe and Asia Minor)

The common pokemus (Pokemus vulgaris) is a ubiquitous fixture of the forests of eastern Asia. This close relative of the lion-tailed pokemus is even more omnivorous than its western cousin, feeding upon small vertebrates, all manner of invertebrates, carrion, and even the young shoots of bamboo plants.

(fig. 3) Common pokemus, Pokemus vulgaris (Eastern Asia)

Common pokemuses are the principal prey of packs of moulong, which pursue the little primates through the forest in shrieking mobs. Usually, the pokemuses' only recourse is to run, but when cornered, lash out with ripping hands and sharp incisors.

The sivachilla (Viverramimus striatus) is a nocturnal pokemurid that seems to represent the type of pokemurids that later split into felimurids and macropokemurids. The sivachilla is not a true macropokemurid but a completely separate taxon. These predator/omnivores are found in the the forests of Southern Asia. Sivachillas will sleep most of the day up in the trees but at dusk it will climb down to look for food on the ground. Like macropokemurids, sivachillas have a varied diet; while insects, lizards, small mammals and bird eggs and young are their main source of nutrition, they are also known to eat certain fruits and nuts.

(fig. 6) Sivachilla, Viverramimus striatus (South and Southeast Asia)

MACROPOKEMURIDAE (chillas)

Chilas are a fairly recent evolutionary development, which probably evolved during the Pliocene, no more than ten million years ago, and spread across eastern Asia and western North America via the Bering land bridge. Chillas are more terrestrial in their habits than the their close cousins, the pokemurids, and although they remain adept climbers, they can also run quickly across ground and swim with ease.

Raichillas are large (6 kg), heavily-built chillas, derived from arboreal stock, but fully at home on the ground, or even in the water. Chillas tend to be more carnivorous than pokemuses, and often dine on fish or carrion.

(fig. 3) Raichilla, Macropokemus sinensis (Eastern and northern Asia)

The island chain of Japan was only recently separated from the Chinese mainland, and so most Japanese plants and animals are little changed from their mainland ansestors. The pikachilla is a case in point, a species endemic to the Japanese islands, but part of genus that extends across eastern Eurasia and North America.
Like other chillas, the pikachilla is a raccoon-like omnivore with heavy tendencies toward carnivory. Pikachillas are stalkers, pouncing from a hiding place to grab an unwary bird or small mammal. These intelligent creatures often cooperate to bring down larger game, and have been known to take down young kirin. Usually, though, they are content with smaller game.

(fig. 4) Pikachilla, Macropokemus nipponicus (Japan---Hokkaido to Kyushu)

It's not a raccoon.

(fig. 5) Not-a-coon, Macropokemus americensis (North America)

FELIMURIDAE (Tree foxes)
More predatory than the other two pokemurid families, felimurids have re-evolved sharp canines, which they use, in conjunction with an array of slashing carnassial teeth, to kill their prey. The nails on the hands and feet are curved and sharp (though technically not claws), and in some species, the toes on the hind limbs have lost their opposability.
The arboreal felimuses fill the niches of such RL carnivores as cats and martens. These predators can be found in Eurasia and in Africa, where deep forests exist to support their lifestyle. In the mountains of Europe and Asia, 'tree foxes' may grow to large size, and occupy the niche of large scavenger/predator, but due to competition from draks and other mammals like the metacanids, Felimuridae has never produced a fully terrestrial predator.

The red felimus or tree fox (Felimus flexilis) is common in central Europe, and its relatives are found in different parts of northern Eurasia. Felimuses' main prey are birds and small mammals, but reptiles, amphibians, bird and dinosaur eggs and young, and even mushrooms and fish may end up in on the primates' menu.

(fig. 5) Tree fox, Felimus flexilis (central Europe)

(fig. 6) Ilve, Felipithecus sinisalonis (northern Eurasia)

The khuffa is a civet-like felimurid from Africa.

(fig. 6) Khuffa, Afrofelimus somethingorotheri (Africa)

Kochillas (genus Parapokemus) are highly specialized felimurids', a primate's answer to the metatherian possum-hounds. With their nimble hands and feet and flexible spines, kochillas out-compete their counterparts in rocky habitats, although they cannot run as fast across level ground. Kochillas' faces are elongated and dog-like, the eyes small and the nose large. Their hands still retain opposable thumbs, but these digits have been lost in the feet, which are now paws for running.
The Himalayan kochilla is a relatively large (15kg) generalist predator of the rocky, alpine reaches. Kochillas are excellent stalkers, hunting by stealth like their arboreal ancestors. It seems that its climbing abilities have given the kochilla an advantage over the bipedal theropods in the mountains of the Himalaya, and thus it has become one of the world's largest terrestiral mammalian predators.

(fig. 7) Himalayan kochilla, Partapokemus pseudofelis (Central Asia (Himalayas)

Daniel Bensen, Matti Aumala

| ,=Felimus flexilis (Red felimus)
| ,=|

              |              |   `=Arbrofelimus somethingorotheri (Khuffa)
               `=Felimuridae=|
                              `=Parapokemus pseudofelis (Himalayan kochilla)

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