The earliest primates likely descended from a small, nocturnal, insectivorous mammal. The tree shrews and colugos (also known as flying lemurs) are the closest living relatives to primates. The tree shrew is used as a living model for what the earliest primates, or primate predecessors, might have been like.

How did primates originate?

It is generally thought that they began as isolated groups of Old World monkeys that somehow drifted to South America either from North America or Africa on large clumps of vegetation and soil. The evidence suggests that Africa is the most likely continent of origin.

What group did primates evolve first?

The oldest known primate-like mammals with a relatively robust fossil record is Plesiadapis (although some researchers do not agree that Plesiadapis was a proto-primate). Fossils of this primate have been dated to approximately 55 million years ago.