Primate evolution - in and out of Africa

Abstract

A synthetic analysis of molecular, fossil and biogeographical data gives a remarkably consistent scenario for the evolution of the catarrhine primates - the hominoids and Old World monkeys. This analysis supports the African location of the common ancestor of the Old World monkeys, and suggests that the Asian colobine monkeys and macaques dispersed out of Africa into Eurasia within the past ten million years. More interestingly and controversially, this analysis further suggests that the lineage leading to the living hominoids dispersed out of Africa about twenty million years ago, and that the common ancestor of the living African apes, including humans, migrated back into Africa from Eurasia within about the past ten million years.