Apes, monkeys split earlier than fossils had indicated

The evolutionary precursors of modern apes and people diverged from ancient monkeys between 29 million and 34.5 million years ago, a new genetic analysis concludes. This evolutionary parting of the ways had previously been placed at between 23 million and 25 million years ago.

Michael E. Steiper of Hunter College of the City University of New York and his colleagues first consulted the latest fossil evidence to estimate that the human evolutionary family separated from chimps’ ancestors between 6 million and 7 million years ago, while the macaque monkey lineage diverged from its baboon ancestors between 5 million and 7 million years ago.