Did tectonic rift push apes and monkeys apart?

• Autores: Colin Barras
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2917, 2013, pág. 9
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Barras talks about the plate tectonics of the East African Rift that may have been shaping the ancestors' evolution. The rift, which passes through Tanzania, is famous for being the site of early hominin fossil discoveries including the 3.2-million-year-old Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis). It has now yielded the earliest ape and Old World monkey. At 25 million years old, the lower jaw of the ape and a molarfrom the Old World monkey are the same age as the rift itself, raising the possibility that the tectonic forces that formed the rift also drove the split of apes-- and therefore humans--from monkeys.