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Friday, April 22nd, 2016

Monkey mariners made monumental migration 21 million years ago

Author:     Will Dunham
Source:     Reuters
Publication Date:     Wed Apr 20, 2016 4:23pm EDT
 Link: Monkey mariners made monumental migration 21 million years ago
Stephan:   Another chapter of the past opens explaining one thing yet leaving us with a mystery. This is the story about how little monkeys, some untold number of them, migrated across the sea 21 million years ago. The argument is that they did this involuntarily on mats of vegetation. But it seems to me a mystery. It took a 100 days, so what did they drink? Neither humans nor monkeys can go 100 days without water, and you can't drink seawater for 100 days.
Placed in a wax jaw, fossil teeth belonging to Panamacebus transitus are compared with those of a modern female tufted capuchin, Cebus apella, in this picture courtesy of the Florida Museum of Natural History. Credit: Florida Museum of Natural History/Kristen Grace/Handout via Reuters

Placed in a wax jaw, fossil teeth belonging to Panamacebus transitus are compared with those of a modern female tufted capuchin, Cebus apella, in this picture courtesy of the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Credit: Florida Museum of Natural History/Kristen Grace/Handout via Reuters

Monkeys resembling today’s capuchins accomplished the astonishing feat of crossing at least 100 miles (160 km) of open ocean 21 million years ago to get from South America to North America eons before the two continents joined together.

Scientists said on Wednesday they reached that conclusion based on the discovery of seven little teeth during excavations involving the Panama Canal’s expansion, showing monkeys had reached the North American continent far earlier than previously known.

The teeth belonged to Panamacebus transitus, a previously unknown medium-sized monkey species. South America at the time was […]

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