Scientists have found evidence that apes and monkeys, ancient ancestors of humans, evolved in Asia some tens of millions of years ago, a finding that challenges the assumption that human evolution began in Africa.
The surprising claim by researchers at Carnegie Museum of Natural History is based on the discovery of four species of early primate in the Sahara desert, dating back 39 million years. The anthropoid primates are unlike anything seen before in Africa from the same time period or before, suggesting that they evolved elsewhere.
Scientists say there is enough fossil evidence to believe that mankind evolved from ape-like creatures in Africa two to three million years ago. The common ancestors of all apes, monkeys and humans are also believed to be evolved in Africa. But the new finding challenges that view.
“If our ideas are correct, this early colonisation of Africa by anthropoids was a truly pivotal event — one of the key points in our evolutionary history,” study author Dr Christopher Beard of Carnegie Museum of Natural History was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
At the time, he said, Africa was an island continent. When these anthropoids appeared, there was nothing on that island that could compete with them.
He said: “It led to a period of flourishing evolutionary divergence amongst anthropoids, and one of those lineages resulted in humans.
“If our early anthropoid ancestors had not succeeded in migrating from Asia to Africa, we simply wouldn’t exist.”
Although the researchers found only fossilised teeth at the Dur At-Talah escarpment — part of the unspoilt, remote Sahara in central Libya — they have a rough idea of their size and shape.
The four creatures were small, weighing between four and 16 ounces, and resembled monkeys or lemurs. Three of them came from distinct families of primates — showing that they had been evolving from a common ancestor for a long time. The researchers, who reported their findings in the journal Nature, said there was no evidence of similar primates from Africa before 39 million years ago. So either there is a “striking gap” in the fossil record of North Africa or the early primates came from elsewhere, said Dr Beard.