History of Human Evolution — Most ancient monkey fossils found outside Africa.

Human beings by far are the most advanced species. But when we start tracing back as to what we used to be billions of years ago, we end up confused. The biggest myth we believe in, is that human evolution has started from monkeys. Well, that’s not true. Humans and monkeys both follow the biological order of mammal evolution. But as per the researchers, humans have not descended from monkeys or any other ancient mammal. Humans and monkeys both share a common ape ancestor. Yes! apes are our real ancestors. And this ancient mammal is the ancestor for chimpanzees as well. But humans and chimpanzees have evolved differently from that same ape ancestor which used to live between 6 to 8 million years ago. And all monkeys and apes (including humans), share an even more distant relative which lived around 25 million years ago. Human evolution has not been a simple caterpillar to butterfly transformation. There are many stages of human evolution. A diversity of mammal species have mixed up from common ancestors like branches on a tree to form humans. Our species of homo sapiens is the only successful survivor after a mix and match combination of so many other species. No wonder why we are so complex!

Very recently, most ancient monkey fossils have been found in a lignite mine in southeastern Yunan Province in China. Its about 6.4 million years old. And it clearly indicates that monkeys existed in Asia at the same time as apes did.

“This is significant because they are some of the very oldest fossils of monkeys outside of Africa, It is close to or actually the ancestor of many of the living monkeys of East Asia. One of the interesting things from the perspective of paleontology is that this monkey occurs at the same place and same time as ancient apes in Asia.” says Nina G. Jablonski, University Professor of Anthropology, Penn State.

So it means we (apes) have been living on this planet for much longer than what was anticipated. Its so fascinating to discover how we are connected to this nature. In a way we have the genetics of numerous species of many generations. We are the manifestation of life which wants to display itself in so many different forms.

The fossils of these highly ancient monkeys have many interesting sights to ponder upon. The lower jawbone and the upper portion of the leg bone of the fossils that were examined, indicate that the individual was a female, according to the researchers. They suggest that these monkeys were probably multi-taskers who were able to navigate in the trees and on land. Their teeth indicate they could eat a wide variety of plants, fruits and flowers, while apes mostly eat fruit.. Read more