Monkey Ancestors Rafted Atlantic

The ancestors of South America’s monkeys likely reached the continent from Africa more than 30 million years ago by drifting across the Atlantic on natural rafts of vegetation and earth. Storms may have torn loose riverbank mats or island-like debris, then ocean currents carried the trapped primates west while the Atlantic was narrower than it is today. The same general rafting process is also the leading explanation for how lemur ancestors reached Madagascar from mainland Africa.

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