Fossil discovery sheds new light on evolutionary history of higher primates (signals)

[Brian.Pearson]

"Not only does Afrasia help seal the case that anthropoids first evolved in Asia, it also tells us when our anthropoid ancestors first made their way to Africa, where they continued to evolve into apes and humans," says Chris Beard, Carnegie Museum of Natural History paleontologist and member of the discovery team that also included researchers from Myanmar, Thailand, and France. Beard is renowned for his extensive work on primate evolution and anthropoid origins. "Afrasia is a game-changer because for the first time it signals when our distant ancestors initially colonized Africa. If this ancient migration had never taken place, we wouldn't be here talking about it."

[ovcatto]

Cool, I missed this.

[Tek_Freek]

If this ancient migration had never taken place, we wouldn't be here talking about it.

True, but it's likely someone/something would be...

[Brian.Pearson]

one millimeter = 0.0393701 of an inch assuming that is the critter involved.

[Stumbler.]

It seems like it wouldn't have been much bigger than a rodent like a squirrel or chipmunk. Could have involved island hopping, catching a ride on driftwood and other things or maybe temporary land bridges between land areas for the little guy.

It's proposed that some small mammals migrated/colonized across small expanses of sea or ocean that way. For example, the New World monkeys, which would have been later than the critter in this timeline, have been thought to derive from a stock of Old World monkeys residing in Africa back in the time when the Atlantic wasn't as wide, or perhaps when there were land bridges between them.

[Brian.Pearson]

Here is map. Not sure how accurate it would've been.