New Research Reveals the First Apes Evolved in Tropical Forests

New research reveals the first apes evolved in tropical forests

Early Miocene ape, Proconsul africanus. Credit: Mauricio Antón, published with Alan Turner Licensing via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). New research has shown that the earliest apes – ancestors of modern great apes and humans – evolved in tropical forests in the shadow of a violent volcano. Apes first emerged about 25 million years ago (mya). Scientists are now beginning to understand how the environment shaped the earliest apes. The hominin gro…

Early Apes Evolved in Tropical Forests Disturbed by Fires and Volcanoes

Source: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Great apes began to diverge from other primates around 25 million years ago, according to eastern African fossil records. Though it would take another 20 million or so years for upright-walking hominins to appear, understanding the habitats of early apes helps clarify how environments drove the evolution of our distant ancestors. Munyaka et al. excavated and analyzed fossils from an approximately 20-…