Africa Not the Birthplace of Early Anthropoid Primates

New fossil finds suggest that Africa is not the original birthplace of EARLY ANTHROPOID PRIMATES - and I'll bet that one day we'll find that "out of Antarctica" preceded "out of Asia" for our own ancient anthropoid primate line.

New Fossil Points To 'Out of Asia' Theory

The origin of anthropoids — the simians, or "higher primates," which include monkeys, apes and humans — has been debated for decades among scientists. Although fossils unearthed in Egypt have long suggested that Africa was the cradle for anthropoids, other bones revealed in the last 15 years or so raised the possibility that Asia may be their birthplace. ..

An international team of scientists has unearthed a new fossil in Southeast Asia that may prove that anthropoids originated in what is now the East, shedding light on a pivotal step in primate and human evolution ... The fossil is named Afrasia djijidae ...

The teeth of 37-million-year-old Afrasia closely resemble those of another early anthropoid, the 38-million-year-old Afrotarsius libycus, recently discovered in the Sahara Desert of Libya. The anthropoids in Libya were far more diverse at that early time in Africa than scientists had thought, which suggested they actually originated elsewhere. The close similarity between Afrasia and Afrotarsius now suggests that early anthropoids colonized Africa from Asia.

Significantly, these two anthropoids (Afrasia and Afrotarsius) are 37 million and 38 million years old, respectively. The Eocene epoch lasted from 56 to 33.9 million years ago, so the first 18 million years of anthropoid primate evolution during Eocene epoch is unaccounted for - Antartctica could have been the home of our earliest anthropoid primate ancestors during those first 18 million years of the Eocene. No anthropoid primate fossil aged earlier than 38 million years ago have been found (to date) in either Asia or Africa - go Antarctica!

The scientific evidence for an Antarctic origin for our earliest anthropoid primate ancestors just keeps piling up!

My ancestors, even my not-yet-human ones are freaking awesome! and their voices still live in me!