Apes leave Africa
Around 17 million years ago hominoids cross into Eurasia and spread from Spain to China.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 1 million years
- Known to
- ± 1 million years
- Era
- Miocene, Cenozoic
Once the Gomphotherium land bridge is in place and sea level is low, apes descended from African stock move into Eurasia and diversify across its subtropical forest belt. This dispersal is the origin of every non-African ape lineage, orangutans included, and quite possibly of the ancestors that later returned to Africa. For roughly eight million years Eurasia, not Africa, holds the greatest ape diversity on Earth.