Newly discovered fossils suggest human’s earliest relatives first evolved in Asia, not Africa. 

The new discovery suggests that the ancestors of all anthropoids (monkeys, apes, and humans) arose in Asia and made the long journey to the island continent of Africa almost 40 million years ago, Wired.com reported. 

In 2005, Christopher Beard of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and an international team of researchers were sifting fossils near the village of Nyaungpinle in Myanmar when they came across a molar the size of a kernel of popcorn. The tooth, according to Wired, dated back 38 million years and belonged to a new species of ancient primate, which would have been the size of a small chipmunk.

Continue reading — New fossils suggest human ancestors originated in Asia, not Africa