Plate Tectonics caused Hominoid Splittings

~25 Ma Arabafrica approaching Eurasia formed island archipels, rich in coastal forests: cf some parallels in Nasalis:
Catarrhini reaching these islands waded upright + climbed arms overhead: they became aquarboreal Hominoidea.
~20 Ma great/lesser ape split: hylobatids followed the N-Tethys ocean coasts -> SE.Asia.
~15 Ma the Mesopotamian Seaway Closure split pongids-sivapiths (E) & hominids-dryopiths (W: Medit.Sea + incipient Red Sea):
pongids-sivapiths -> SE.Asia forced hylobatids higher into the trees -> brachiation.
~8 Ma in Red Sea: N-Rift fm, followed by Gorilla -> Afar -> Praeanthr.afarensis Lucy etc.-> boisei -> today G.gorilla & G.beringei.
~5 Ma the Red Sea opened into the Gulf (caused by Zanclean mega-flood 5.33 Ma?): Homo & Pan split:
– Pan went right: E.Afr.coasts ->S-Rift ->Transvaal ->Au.africanus -> robustus (// Gorilla) -> today P.troglodytes & P.paniscus,
– Pliocene Homo went left: S.Asian coasts (no Pliocene African retroviral DNA in Homo) ->Java early-Pleist.H.erectus were shallow-divers for shellfish, rich in DHA = large brain: pachy-osteo-sclerosis, stone tools, shell engravings google "Joordens Munro" etc.etc.: Homo dispersed along coasts->rivers. Homo evolved mid- -> late-Pleist.: diving -> wading -> walking H.sapiens.

https://www.gondwanatalks.com/l/the-waterside-hypothesis-wading-led-to-upright-walking-in-early-humans/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b07v2ysg David Attenborough "The Waterside Ape"

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