According to a recent story published in the journal Nature, monkeys have lived in South America for 36 million years. The team of researchers, from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, discovered four molars in Eastern Peru. These molars have been dated to 36 million years ago, which is 10 million years older than any other known South American monkey fossil. The animal, named Perupithecus ucayaliensis, is though to be about the size of a squirrel.
This news comes despite the fact that the creatures likely didn't originate on that continent, but rather evolved in Africa and somehow crossed the Atlantic.
"How and when monkeys arrived in South America remain the major questions," said Ken Campbell, curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, which led the study.Campbell also noted that its teeth also bore a striking resemblance to fossils of ancient African monkeys, giving more credence to the idea that these creatures crossed the Atlantic at some point.
How they did that remains a mystery.
"The primary hypothesis is that they floated on a raft of vegetation, but that is still a big question," Campbell said.
He points out, the journey may have been a little easier 36 million years ago since due to the shifting of the continents, the Atlantic was considerably narrower back then.
Original paper in Nature.
