News Finding: This implies that for 20 million years before dinosaurs became extinct, early versions of primates also lived and evolved.
Paper Finding: Compared with two recent molecular studies of primate divergence dates Young 2006, 2008) , the majority of our estimates are somewhat older (Fig.
News Context: Under the new estimate, Toumai would fall within the period after the human lineage split from chimpanzees, Martin said. This implies that for 20 million years before dinosaurs became extinct, early versions of primates also lived and evolved. It challenged the accepted theory that primates and other mammals didn't really thrive on the planet until dinosaurs were gone.
Paper Context: Thus, the relatively low (compared with other nodes) discrepancy between mean model estimate and fossil date for node t 13 (34.6%; Table 5 ) may reflect the effect of the near-total absence of a crown strepsirrhine fossil record on both dates rather than relative congruence between the two. Compared with two recent molecular studies of primate divergence dates Young 2006, 2008) , the majority of our estimates are somewhat older (Fig. In most cases, the increases suggested discrepancies between estimated divergence dates and the oldest known fossil representative of a clade.