mgr Adam Lis
Scientific interests 
Publications
Lang, Madlen M.; Silcox, Mary T.; Fostowicz‐Frelik, Łucja; Lis, Adam; López‐Torres, Sergi; San Martin‐Flores, Gabriela; Bertrand, Ornella C.
But how does it smell? An investigation of olfactory bulb size among living and fossil primates and other euarchontoglirans Journal Article
In: The Anatomical Record, vol. 309, iss. 4, pp. 1037–1060, 2026, ISSN: 1932-8494.
@article{Lang2025,
title = {But how does it smell? An investigation of olfactory bulb size among living and fossil primates and other euarchontoglirans},
author = {Madlen M. Lang and Mary T. Silcox and Łucja Fostowicz‐Frelik and Adam Lis and Sergi López‐Torres and San Martin‐Flores, Gabriela and Ornella C. Bertrand},
doi = {10.1002/ar.25651},
issn = {1932-8494},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-01},
urldate = {2026-04-01},
journal = {The Anatomical Record},
volume = {309},
issue = {4},
pages = {1037--1060},
publisher = {Wiley},
abstract = {<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Primates are often considered to have a poor sense of smell. While all studies identify small olfactory bulbs (OB; the region of the brain responsible for processing scent) among haplorhines, whether or not strepsirrhines also possess small OBs is less clear, as is the evolutionary backdrop from which these patterns emerged. Here, we examine the relative size of the olfactory bulbs in cranial endocasts of living and fossil primates and their kin (Euarchontoglires [Primates, Dermoptera, Scandentia, Rodentia, Lagomorpha]), testing previous hypotheses. Regression analyses of OB volume and mass relative to endocranial volume (ECV) and body mass (BM), and ANOVAS of residuals, were performed on a dataset of 181 extant and 41 extinct species. Analyses show clear differences in the relative size of the OBs, with haplorhines possessing distinctly smaller OBs relative to all other clades. Pairwise tests indicate haplorhine OBs are significantly smaller than those of all other clades, including strepsirrhines; when the haplorhines are removed from analyses, strepsirrhines are significantly smaller than all other clades. This suggests that a reduction in OB size occurred at the crown primate node, a pattern also seen in ancestral state reconstruction (ASR) analyses. The ASR analyses suggest multiple iterations of olfactory bulb size decrease occurred in Haplorhini, reflecting large amounts of parallelism. These results likely differ from previous studies due to the inclusion of additional fossils and more appropriate outgroups based on up‐to‐date phylogenetic hypotheses.</jats:p>},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Primates are often considered to have a poor sense of smell. While all studies identify small olfactory bulbs (OB; the region of the brain responsible for processing scent) among haplorhines, whether or not strepsirrhines also possess small OBs is less clear, as is the evolutionary backdrop from which these patterns emerged. Here, we examine the relative size of the olfactory bulbs in cranial endocasts of living and fossil primates and their kin (Euarchontoglires [Primates, Dermoptera, Scandentia, Rodentia, Lagomorpha]), testing previous hypotheses. Regression analyses of OB volume and mass relative to endocranial volume (ECV) and body mass (BM), and ANOVAS of residuals, were performed on a dataset of 181 extant and 41 extinct species. Analyses show clear differences in the relative size of the OBs, with haplorhines possessing distinctly smaller OBs relative to all other clades. Pairwise tests indicate haplorhine OBs are significantly smaller than those of all other clades, including strepsirrhines; when the haplorhines are removed from analyses, strepsirrhines are significantly smaller than all other clades. This suggests that a reduction in OB size occurred at the crown primate node, a pattern also seen in ancestral state reconstruction (ASR) analyses. The ASR analyses suggest multiple iterations of olfactory bulb size decrease occurred in Haplorhini, reflecting large amounts of parallelism. These results likely differ from previous studies due to the inclusion of additional fossils and more appropriate outgroups based on up‐to‐date phylogenetic hypotheses.</jats:p>
Anderson, Holly E.; Lis, Adam; Lundeen, Ingrid; Silcox, Mary T.; López-Torres, Sergi
Sensory Reconstruction of the Fossil Lorisid Mioeuoticus: Systematic and Evolutionary Implications Journal Article
In: Animals, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 345, 2025, ISSN: 2076-2615.
@article{ani15030345,
title = {Sensory Reconstruction of the Fossil Lorisid Mioeuoticus: Systematic and Evolutionary Implications},
author = {Holly E. Anderson and Adam Lis and Ingrid Lundeen and Mary T. Silcox and Sergi López-Torres},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/15/3/345},
doi = {10.3390/ani15030345},
issn = {2076-2615},
year = {2025},
date = {2025-01-25},
urldate = {2025-01-25},
journal = {Animals},
volume = {15},
number = {3},
pages = {345},
abstract = {The fossil record of lorises and pottos (family Lorisidae) potentially dates back to the late Oligocene of Namibia, but a later moderate diversification of this family occurred during the Miocene of Africa and Asia. In the African Miocene, the family Lorisidae is represented solely by one genus: Mioeuoticus. The phyletic position of Mioeuoticus has been a source of debate, as it has been suggested to belong to either the stem of the family Lorisidae or to be further nested within lorisids, as a sister to the African potto clade (subfamily Perodicticinae). Reconstructing the internal sensory anatomy of Mioeuoticus shipmani (KNM-RU 2052) could shed some light on this debate and possibly clarify how modern lorisoid olfactory and visual sensitivity and locomotor abilities evolved. Here, we collected data from the nasal turbinals, bony labyrinths, and orbits of Mioeuoticus shipmani from the early Miocene of Rusinga Island, Kenya. These results are consistent with Mioeuoticus, having developed typical modern lorisid behaviour (i.e., slow locomotion, nocturnal activity pattern) and olfactory abilities consistent with modern representatives. However, the arrangement of the nasal turbinals shows an intermediate state between lemuroids and lorisoids that is most consistent with a basal position of Mioeuoticus within the family Lorisidae or even the superfamily Lorisoidea.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The fossil record of lorises and pottos (family Lorisidae) potentially dates back to the late Oligocene of Namibia, but a later moderate diversification of this family occurred during the Miocene of Africa and Asia. In the African Miocene, the family Lorisidae is represented solely by one genus: Mioeuoticus. The phyletic position of Mioeuoticus has been a source of debate, as it has been suggested to belong to either the stem of the family Lorisidae or to be further nested within lorisids, as a sister to the African potto clade (subfamily Perodicticinae). Reconstructing the internal sensory anatomy of Mioeuoticus shipmani (KNM-RU 2052) could shed some light on this debate and possibly clarify how modern lorisoid olfactory and visual sensitivity and locomotor abilities evolved. Here, we collected data from the nasal turbinals, bony labyrinths, and orbits of Mioeuoticus shipmani from the early Miocene of Rusinga Island, Kenya. These results are consistent with Mioeuoticus, having developed typical modern lorisid behaviour (i.e., slow locomotion, nocturnal activity pattern) and olfactory abilities consistent with modern representatives. However, the arrangement of the nasal turbinals shows an intermediate state between lemuroids and lorisoids that is most consistent with a basal position of Mioeuoticus within the family Lorisidae or even the superfamily Lorisoidea.