Artist's reconstruction · realistic art coming in a later version
Purgatorius
pur-guh-TOR-ee-us
“Named for Purgatory Hill”
After the AsteroidWhen
Early Paleocene
Where
North America
Size
About the size of a mouse
Diet
Insects & fruit
6 Facts
1–6- Purgatorius lived just after the dinosaurs died out, when mammals finally got their chance.
- It was one of the earliest known primate relatives — which makes it a very, very distant cousin of yours.
- It was tiny, about the size of a mouse, and lived in the trees.
- It ate insects and fruit and could climb and grip branches well.
- With the giant dinosaurs gone, small mammals like this one spread and grew into the huge variety of mammals today.
- It’s named after Purgatory Hill in Montana, where its fossils were found.