Africa joins Eurasia
A land bridge forms across the closing Tethys, and two long-separated faunas walk into each other.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 1 million years
- Known to
- ± 500 thousand years
- Era
- Miocene, Cenozoic
Around 19 to 18 million years ago, tectonic convergence and falling sea level connect the Afro-Arabian plate to Eurasia for the first time in tens of millions of years. The exchange is two-way and consequential: proboscideans, hyraxes and Old World monkeys move north and east out of Africa, while rhinos, pigs, giraffoid ancestors, deer and — most importantly — carnivorans including cats, hyenas and bears move south into Africa, which had until then had only hyaenodonts as large predators. It is named for the elephant relative whose arrival in Europe dates it.