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I was at the zoo yesterday with my kids and I noted the fact that New World monkeys are hypothesized to have arrived in South America via a mangrove raft (or mo
by dhosek 3y ago
I was at the zoo yesterday with my kids and I noted the fact that New World monkeys are hypothesized to have arrived in South America via a mangrove raft (or more likely multiple) and spread from Brazil outwards. Humans, meanwhile, arrived in the Western Hemisphere by way of Asia spreading south from Alaska. I speculated that perhaps the northern boundary of the range of New World monkeys is a consequence of them meeting up with southward migrating humans.
- fasthands9 3y agoI believe new world monkeys are speculated to have crossed over about 40 million years ago - whereas humans are closer to 40,000 years ago. I think the northern boundary is just because there is a giant desert, though I admit it is still surprising to me.
- dhosek 3y agoAnd yet monkeys and apes managed to move past the Arabian desert to move as far east as Japan and across the Sahara into Morocco and elsewhere in North Africa. (While looking to see what the range of old world primates was, I discovered that there are marsupials in Papua New Guinea including something called a Tree Kangaroo.)