The WEIRD Way Monkeys Got to America

Many of the greatest biological dispersal events in history likely happened because animals inadvertently traveled across the oceans on floating debris.
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
Oceanic dispersal: A type of biological dispersal where terrestrial animals transfer from one land mass to another via a sea crossing.
Rafting event: Oceanic dispersal that happens via floating vegetation.
Platyrrhini: The so-called “New World Monkeys” that descended from African simians that arrived in South America roughly 30-40 million years ago.
South Equatorial Current: A current maintained by the trade winds that flows westward along the equator.
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CREDITS
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David Goldenberg | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Arcadi Garcia i Rius | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
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REFERENCES
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Carlos G. Schrago , Claudia A. M. Russo, Timing the Origin of New World Monkeys, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 20, Issue 10, October 2003, Pages 1620-1625. Retrieved from: doi.org/10.109...
Defler, T.R. (2018). Platyrrhine Monkeys: The Fossil Evidence. Topics in Geobiology. Retrieved from: link.springer....
Drury, S. (2020). How did monkeys get to South America? Earth Logs. Retrieved from:
earthlogs.org/...
Queiroz, A. (2004). The REsurrection of Oceanic Dispersal in Historical Biogeography. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 20:2 (68-73). Retrieved from: www.sciencedir...
Ali, J., Huber, M. Mammalian biodiversity on Madagascar controlled by ocean currents. Nature 463, 653-656 (2010). Retrieved from: doi.org/10.103...
Black, R. (2020). More Than 30 Million Years Ago, Monkeys Rafted Across the Atlantic to South America. Smithsonian. Retrieved from: www.smithsonia...
Lawton, G. (2021). On a Raft and a Prayer. NewScientist. 252:3365-3366 (50-52). Retrieved from: www.sciencedir...
Ali, Jason. (2023). Direct Communication. DEpartment of Earth Science, University of Hong Kong. www.earthscien...

[@MinuteEarth]

You can now send us Super Thanks! If you liked this video - or any of our other science explainers - you can directly support us by clicking on the Super Thanks button (the one with the heart

[@alphaapple1375]

Thank you for including metric units! It means so much to me, I stand in solidarity with international people 🌍 from those outside of the United States 🇺🇸! By the way, I also stand in solidarity with LGBT+. 🏳️‍🌈!

[@Gmackematix]

Usually MinuteEarth likes its puns, so imagine my surprise when nobody said that for this monkey puzzle, scientists have yet to come up with a raft of proposed ideas.

[@alto7183]

A esto podría tal vez haber islas temporales en el paso donde con el tiempo ayudarán, comerse sus insectos de la vegetación o piojos de sus cuerpos reciclando recursos y comida junto con mayores niveles de oxígeno atmosférico qué afectan el metabolismo y apetito del cuerpo, sin mencionar humedad matutina tan abundante qué todo queda mojado por rocío matinal y además de eso los fósiles de palmeras ancestros de África y suramerica dejarían cocos a la deriva qué afectarían por ser la migración de flora de África a América, claro también cuando la Antártida era puente de selvas y bosques en el pasado, sugerencia.

[@CornPaper]

@@alphaapple1375 "I stand in solidarity with international people" this is hilarious. thank you American person for sharing your solidarity.

[@alphaapple1375]

@@CornPaperThank you so much! 😄

[@ShankarSivarajan]

"The world is big enough. Time is long enough." Inspiring words.

[@ComicalHealing]

Now apply that to an infinite universe.

[@capitão_paçoca]

Yeah I'm so inspired to wait in the beach until the little piece of land I am in disconnects from the continent and I end up in some new strange land. I don't see how this can inspire anyone to do anything. It's just beautiful and contemplative

[@hish33p32]

Now apply that to your self improvement journey, most people think they lack time and/or energy but no, they just lack focus, focus is a much more important factor than time, a student who only studied for 2 hours but is deeply focused will achieve more results than a student who studied 5 hours but was distracted.

[@capitão_paçoca]

@@hish33p32 yeah but what million of years old monkeys have to do with this

[@nBasedAce]

So, eventually the people on Gilligan's Island will get back home.

[@denniseggert211]

The chances that Monkeys crossed some 1500 km of Ocean is actually pretty high. A piece of Bogey Marsh that broke of makes it sounds like a tiny piece of Land that they barely cling on to, it´s far more likely that it would be big enough to not just carry a few monkeys but a whole small eco system with it. Floating Islands, detached portions of other Islands or Continents are found all over the World.

[@skeletonking2501]

That sounds cool as shit

[@rickkwitkoski1976]

So... the floating island in "Dr. Doolittle" isn't as far fetched as it sounds...

[@divinesleeper]

the only thing that floats long enough to cross an actual ocean is a pumice raft, and pumice raft wouldn't be inhabited by monkeys or sufficient vegetation to survive. It's far more likely that the highly speculative scale for continental drift is wrong

[@bosstowndynamics5488]

​@@divinesleeperPersonally, as an outsider, to me the most likely thing would be the thing suggested by the joint evidence backed scientific theories of experts from multiple scientific disciplines working together, rather than a KZbin commenter using a single unlikely event to say that the entire understanding of plate tectonics (and by extension a lot of the geology underpinning it) must be wrong.

[@ConstantChaos1]

Well one thing of note is that any item at sea will attract life... they probably ate a lot of sea birds and a fair bit of fish, even lemurs can catch and eat birds and fish making food easier

[@El_Omar2203]

So this scenario is the monkey-typewriter hypothetical, but with rafts instead of typewriters... and a lot of drowned monkeys.

[@MinuteEarth]

well when you put it that way...

[@mattitrooper396]

@@MinuteEarthlol

[@firelight3806]

@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist1 Report this as spam

[@greywolf7577]

@repentandbelieveinJesusChrist1 Don't believe in superstition. Jesus wasn't magic. He was just a man.

[@FreeAmericaFromIsrael]

JESUS (EESAH) Is a prophet and the messiah who will testify against the man worshippers on judgement day ..@@greywolf7577

[@jibbaspaa]

Thanks! I’m not much of a merch guy and I don’t like the subscription model of patreon, so I appreciate you using this method and reminding me to use it. *Big hug*

[@AsifAhmed-tb7yc]

You contributed $4.99! Why not just $5?? Did you try to console yourself that you spent less??? 😋

[@AaronKlapheck]

Thanks! Love your videos. I also like your Patron page ❤

[@MinuteEarth]

Thank you so much!

[@pedromenchik1961]

I think there’s a missing piece of this: There are several islands between Africa and South America, including the Cape Verde Archipelago, Fernando de Noronha, Penedos de São Pedro e São Paulo, Trindade & Martim Vaz, Ascension, Tristan da Cunha, etc. Some of those have food and fresh water too. So maybe the migration happened piecewise over many years by island hopping instead of the whole distance at once

[@vincentx2850]

I think though the journey between the islands is a lot shorter, the probability of monkeys making all those journeys one after another, from a mathematic point of view, may be even lower. Animals do disperse through island hopping don't get me wrong. One primate, the long tailed macaque seems especially good at it, reaching all the way to Timor from its Sunda homeland. But the Indonesia archipelagos are a lot closer together with a much shallower sea and way bigger islands, and even with that the monkeys still cannot reach Papua or Australia.

[@rcookie5128]

Were those islands existing during the era the monkeys must have voyaged over?

[@aguyontheinternet8436]

well, of course, those islands would need to show signs that monkeys lived there for that to hold up

[@MrMtanz]

Good argument!

[@wile123456]

Well does any of those islands have monkeys? Because if not then it isn't likely.

[@softlysnowing3959]

I love the detail of the die representing the chances of survival. So cool.

[@TheRealTobias]

I love how you visualised the changing probability with those dice! Keep nerding out! 😊

[@syawkcab]

Makes me wonder if rafts of monkeys or other animals ever landed in Antarctica and they just froze to death

[@sicksock435446]

Penguins when they meet monkeys for the first time "🗿"

[@Noah-ws8ho]

Antarctica has very strong circular ocean currents ssurrounding it. So, that's fairly unlikely in recent history. The currents have to be favorable.

[@stephenderry9488]

Long before the monkeys, the marsupials and flightless birds (ancestors of kiwis, cassowaries and emus) reached Australia from South America by walking across Antarctica. Of course in those days they were all joined together, and Antarctica was a lush temperate vegetated land.

[@wkimbo]

monkeys got to Americas thru the atlantic-triangle trade.. these monkeys were packed in 1000s in a ship and sent to work the fields, bruh.. President Lincoln saved these monkeys from slavery

[@cartel_papi]

@@stephenderry9488 what the, this is so mindblowing lmao

[@vincentx2850]

Monkeys are not even the only one that made this very journey. All the South American rodents, tortoise, crocodiles and even cichlids likely came from African ancestors.

[@Hizsoo]

Maybe the islands in the region and erosion is so much underestimated.

[@rickkwitkoski1976]

@vincentx2850 Yes. S. America was one of the continents that was mostly populated by marsupials... back when, and there are STILL many species of them. Mostly opossum like ones. In fact, marsupials most likely originated there. The large mammals most likely got there from N. America too when the Panama connection happened.

[@LimeyLassen]

Hold up how would fish do it?

[@lenarianmelon4634]

@@LimeyLassen the rafts were huge (hundreds of meters wide to possibly a kilometer) and could hold small pools of water inside them. Also, certain species of fish eggs, especially from areas with fluctuating rainfall can survive years in complete dry conditions as long as they're covered. And animals can eat fish eggs and poop them out while still being viable.

[@jaychoubisa15]

Even the humans are from african and European decent

[@strawwagen]

Shame you didn't show that the "rafts" would've been HUGE, likely spanning hundreds of meters A sight to behold!

[@DAMfoxygrampa]

How would they have been that big?

[@Hater_Ultima]

​@@DAMfoxygrampaLarge peices of land breaks off from larger peice of land.

[@LoreleiBlaine]

​@@DAMfoxygrampalook up "floating bogs" and you'll get an idea of the sort of thing this must have been.

[@bensoncheung2801]

43 👍

[@aribantala]

Which also increases likelihood of survival because that patch of land may also carry edible, fruit bearing, and live plants as well

[@megasun]

Imagine... how many monkeys just DIED, and other lemurs, reptiles, etc.. When they fell on a mat/raft, not by choice, floating into endless ocean, the chance to reach another habitable island/land is so slim. This is very different from human migration to Polynesia, where human did it on purpose, with ships and tools, through exploration and planning.

[@bensoncheung2801]

69 👍 That’s… quite a large number.

[@microska2656]

Yea... What are you trying to prove by saying that

[@ConstantChaos1]

Well there is a chance that humans first learned about islands by accidental means like that especially gor some of the larger islands, if absolutely nothing else technically every shipwreck is still a case of this it's just the end if the destination that counts not the whole thing, it's even more comfortably a case of ir if the ship breaks and you cling to something, the monkeys were probably smart enough to manage a bit of independent mobility (like they were bad swimmers it wasn't impossible for them to swim so they mught have swam the last bit and even if it was just like 100 yards they swam that makes each island and bit of coast that mych bigger and makes it so much more probable

[@foakjljrwajkltawtrawtwa441]

Hypothetically we can say there are monkeys at the bottom of the ocean

[@MP-vc4nu]

Imagine… how many animals and insects just DIED at the moment you typed that comment

[@sixtynine4009]

Instagram reel commenters would have a field day with this video.

[@fhirvhdyg5gjyefhitzaphgbiu748]

Ahahahhah

[@Tafrara-idir]

They love there dark humor over there

[@justanotherguyful]

​@@Tafrara-idirnigga humour

[@justanotherguyful]

Based

[@Personalzida12139]

​@@justanotherguyfulthanks for letting me report your comment

[@FreeTibetFTW]

At 02:43 Is that a Passimian ??? within "New world monkeys"??? LOL, You made my day hehe

[@devincowan892]

Been searching for this comment

[@nickshapiro8308]

Wow! Seems so unlikely... but like it says, even once every 2000 years over a few million years...

[@Zaxares]

And if you scale this up, all the way into infinity, no matter how ridiculous or unlikely the scenario, it is GUARANTEED to happen one day. It's like the old "infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters" thought experiment. As crazy as it sounds, given enough time and monkeys, those monkeys WILL, through sheer random chance, manage to type out the complete works of Shakespeare.

[@Stratelier]

Let's apply actual mathematics to these hypothetical figures: - "Once every 2000 years (P) over a few million years (N)" Say, P = 1/2000 = 0.05%; N = 4 x 10^6 Probability of even 1 successful roll during this interval = *about 65%* (Calculate it yourself! = 100% - (100% - P) ^ N)

[@andyyang5234]

@@Stratelier I'm not entirely sure what you're calculating, or how it relates to the question. Once every 2000 years is not really the same as having a 1/2000 probablility every year, and the formula doesn't calcuate the chance of a successful roll.

[@pierrecurie]

@@Zaxares We don't have anywhere near infinite monkeys. "Eventually" can be insanely long (eg far longer than the age of the universe).

[@Stratelier]

@@andyyang5234 At the same time, these are not predictable events occurring on a fixed schedule (e.g. _literally_ "once every 2000 years") and their incidence over time is estimated from known (or inferred) past occurrences. The formula I listed is the probability of "at least one" successful roll (given a fixed probability over a # rolls). If there are _no_ successful rolls then by definition you have a streak of consecutive failures, something which is super simple to calculate. Whether or not we even have the "correct" values to begin with is a completely different question...

[@five-toedslothbear4051]

When I was a kid, I was amazed at the movie Ra, the documentary of Thor Heyerdahl and crew showing that humans could have crossed the Atlantic on papyrus boats. It was amazing to see that tool-using humans could have done that with planning and purpose. That monkeys could have crossed the Atlantic more or less by accident is even more amazing!

[@nisiu0123]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnvSfZh6fJikh7c

[@wkimbo]

monkeys got to Americas thru the atlantic-triangle trade.. these monkeys were packed in 1000s in a ship and sent to work the fields, bruh.. President Lincoln saved these monkeys from slavery

[@Victoriaghh]

Soo happy this topic is bring covered!!! A podcast I listen to was talking about this a few years ago, and thought it was insanely incredible.

[@wkimbo]

monkeys got to Americas thru the atlantic-triangle trade.. these monkeys were packed in 1000s in a ship and sent to work the fields, bruh.. President Lincoln saved these monkeys from slavery

[@Ehmuhson]

Super interesting - thanks!

[@StarKatGaming]

I just love how adorable all the graphics are in this video specifically. The monkeys alone are so cute doing their things

[@dondiezel]

It turns out that the world is big enough and time is long enough that things we think are so improbable as to be impossible have actually happened many times over.

[@ngtony2969]

when you say "we think are imporbable", that we only includes dumb people. Normal/smart people understand probabilities is chance x number of trials.

[@KnowArt]

now I'm really curious to the story of these iguanas. How does such a thing happen!?

[@MinuteEarth]

www.nytimes.com/1998/10/08/us/hapless-iguanas-float-away-and-voyage-grips-biologists.html

[@gneu1527]

I really like your artstyle and the way you draw monkeys.

[@stinkytoy]

Those monkeys were so goshdarn cute

[@stinkytoy]

Those monkeys were so goshdarn cute!

[@LetsGoforDabash]

Lmfao 🤣🤣🤣🤣 , I can't stop laughing after reading the title... n that thumbnail is crazy af ☠️

[@could_possiblybe_thane07echo]

*reads title* _sighs_ *_looks at comments_*

[@PersonCidacus]

Ive only seen one bad comment, the commenters are way too mature

[@could_possiblybe_thane07echo]

@user-qb1pn8uj7u oki that's good 👍👍

[@ml8808]

Here before the thumbnail changes 😮

[@IcantThinkOf_A_Name]

😂

[@davidegaruti2582]

Smea

[@Satya0001]

Slavery 😢

[@rollitupmars]

So original

[@indecipherabletetrapod2635]

If you'd like to learn more about this topic I'd suggest checking out "The Monkey's Voyage" by Alan de Queiroz, which discusses not just rafting monkeys but also other instances of sweepstakes dispersal, and the evolutionary implications thereof. On another note, one thing I feel this video should have mentioned is that monkeys couldn't have gotten to South America when it was still attached to Africa & were simply left "stranded" there as the continents broke up; that would require monkeys having been around since at least the Jurassic period, long before the earliest known primates!

[@Alarix246]

They mentioned it, quite early on.

[@Alarix246]

@@themechanictangerine isn't that what he said?

[@blutreefrog8409]

real talk this video inspired me to make a roguelike about monkeys rafting across the Atlantic ocean

[@Spongebobismyopp]

I found this video by searching for your game

[@chokoloko97]

W game btw (I’m level 55 in it)

[@Nayn8]

Before i clicked on this video. I had assumed that the comments wouldve been turned off

[@HoreswarBasumatary-pq3xw]

Lol

[@miketacos9034]

I don’t care, I’m imagining monkeys purposefully building and sailing the HMS Oo-oo ah-ah and riding it to glory. (HMS stands for Haha Monkey Sailing)

[@salihdemir3782]

Thanks!

[@brysonbushnell]

Scientists: Humans could have never possibly crossed the oceans in prehistory Also scientists: Yeah so, the monkeys rafted here

[@boardcertifiable]

Clearly monkey technology is superior to inferior homosapien technology. 🐒

[@davidpineda9160]

Dumb Bad faith joke. Ur gay.

[@goldenapple6720]

Yea because monkeys existed for a longer time than humans

[@goldenapple6720]

Other than that wouldn't you have found monkey species living in North America if they walked over there like how we find humans. And also the native humans living in the Americas are related closely to asian almost as if they walked from Asia to the americas

[@TyrePurple472]

I remember when a student tried to argue against my historical studies of Polynesia/Asia in college. When I presented the idea of Polynesians traveling to America for goods such as sweet potato's, he made it his personal crusade to disprove it for about a month or two. His only explanation for native American flora showing up in the Pacific was that of rafts. That enough sweet potato's managed to cross the PACIFIC ocean without rotting or being exposed to the weather, crossed the sea without a single storm or rough patch, before safely landing on a few islands

[@0King2Of0Yesterday]

Love the use of dice to explain these probabilities

[@tapele5987]

WOW! What a perfect video... to begin with, it goes straight to the point: successfully settling a quite striking and unexplainable event, questioning it because of the chances of it happening. But then, instantly, it starts unwrapping all the reasons to conclude that was indeed the case despite how unlikely the event looked like at the beginning. Wrapping up the video in a perfectly closed circle. Awesome work!

[@TipsTricksandTalents]

Clicks on video, immediately checks comment section.

[@zlodevil426]

For young earth cultists or people talking about the slave trade?

[@shoetoss2655]

It’s getting so bad ong

[@retinazer7652]

@@zlodevil426 I would assume the latter

[@quintonneal2881]

I write software for a living and our solution takes a little bit to spin up sometimes. So, I brought in 5 d6s and started rolling them while I waited to see how long it would take me to roll all 6s. I roll them AT LEAST 20 times a day, but often much more than that. I start our application up dozens of times a day, and can usually get about 10 rolls in before I start debugging (keep in mind I’m doing it on paper so it’s not loud and annoying to coworkers. Also, I’m only doing it in my down time. So, it’s not taking away from my work). It took over a year for me to roll all 6s. When I finally got it, I sent out a message to my team and they all started chearing because they had all become somewhat invested in seeing when I’d finally get all 5 sixes. But it literally took over a year of doing it to get it! This video just made me think of that

[@wkimbo]

monkeys got to Americas thru the atlantic-triangle trade.. these monkeys were packed in 1000s in a ship and sent to work the fields, bruh.. President Lincoln saved these monkeys from slavery

[@JaniceinOR]

That makes me thing of the dice game Yahtzee, in which each turn consists of rolling 5 d6s once, then rerolling whichever dice you desire a 2nd time, then a 3rd time; ending your turn with all 5 dice the same is a "Yahtzee". I have rolled a Yahtzee in 1s before (which is the same probability), maybe multiple times over the years. I would guess I have played 50-1000 games of Yahtzee (1-3 rolls per turn, 13 turns/player/game).

[@diracio]

Great stuff, as ever - and I'd love to give a tip but can't see the button... help please?!

[@MinuteEarth]

While unlisted, the option wasn't available, but now it is! check it out and thanks!

[@Hizsoo]

@@MinuteEarth Not available in older versions of the app. That could also be the case.

[@jrexx2841]

Weren't they brought by ships?

[@dthdiablo]

The 1600s batch did come by ships

[@blist14ant]

@@dthdiablo African countries brought them

[@sailor5853]

@dthdiablo ☠️

[@Talonpkmnunity]

2:44 just gotta love the random passimian

[@fonsie_games]

Huh, I thought they arrived in european ships from africa to south america?

[@somewinner8229]

The most likely explanation: the Eagles from Middle Earth carried them after they threw the Ring of Power into Sauron's pit 😂

[@ShankarSivarajan]

Birds bringing things over is actually eminently plausible _for plants._

[@somewinner8229]

@@ShankarSivarajan nice, good to know. I'll advise the tree people of this important information 😅

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@ShankarSivarajan I have it on good authority that that's exactly how the coconut spread all the way from Africa to Camelot.

[@georhodiumgeo9827]

Nope, If it was the eagles they would have only taken them part of the way instead of just taking them to where they actually needed to go. Possibly they were carried by swallows, Not European swallows but maybe multiple African swallows holding a monkey by a string held under the dorsal guiding feathers... Then again African swallows are non migratory so its still up for debate.

[@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8]

@@ShankarSivarajanalso small insects, mites, or such clinging to their fur.

[@Bulsajo]

Wow, so informative and easily the best thing I've watched this week, and agree with everyone who says how powerful the very last line is. More on the topic please (about how humans suck at statistics, but feel free to use more money stories!).

[@ronrori6]

It bothers me how unlikely this sounds

[@silvergamer7250]

A lot of things are improbable but things still happen because time is long

[@514Exc]

If you look at a world map, south america fits perfectly inside the continent of africa, both continents share similar tree species however south america has 3x as much biodiversity as africa today. Seeing this makes me think of The tower of Babel

[@majorsupton]

I love your videos

[@americohagim1131]

“Don’t say intrusive thought! Don’t say intrusive thought!”

[@abd4704]

Say everything instead of accepting the fact they were spawned there .

[@joeljoshyjoeljoshy7823]

But they weren't no evidence for it.

[@abd4704]

@@joeljoshyjoeljoshy7823 Human mind is limited for evidence but we humans have limited intelligence

[@camronphillips6669]

​@@abd4704 sounds like a deflection...

[@abd4704]

@@camronphillips6669 Sounds like Natural Selection

[@stan134]

Birds or bees might have transported monkey seeds over ocean, without even knowing it.

[@colorado841]

Your comment made my head explode.

[@burner555]

🧠📉📉📉📉

[@radgeigerin]

Danke!

[@juliav.mcclelland2415]

Could an incomplete fossil record explain it? Could there have been ancestors of New World monkeys in what is now South America dating back to when South America and Africa were still connected by land, and we just haven't found the fossils of any such New World monkey ancestors that old? Or do the DNA tests preclude that and date when the split happened?

[@amberbydreamsart5467]

on quick googling; monkeys, as a cladistic group in general, first appeared about 55 million years ago, and the last time south america and africa were connected directly was 140-180 million years ago, so it can't be from back then, monkeys didn't exist. I think any north american land bridges since are precluded because there's no evidence of monkeys settling in north america and then traveling south - all DNA signs point to the origin contact being in south america. As far as I'm aware, as well, the DNA testing is usually pretty good at pointing to a vague timeframe for when species diverged, since mutations happen at a relatively predictable rate (though i'm less certain on that, don't quote me on it)

[@LimeyLassen]

I'm pretty sure monkeys didn't exist at all that far back. Shrews, maybe.

[@xtifr]

DNA tests show when the split happened. That's _why_ rafts are the only serious hypothesis left.

[@sicksock435446]

Because when the continents were still connected Monkeys had not yet evolved.

[@benjaminbronnimann3966]

Africa and South America split during the jurassic 180 million years ago, the earliest signs of primates appeared 55 million years ago, so for that hypothesis to work primates would have to be over 3 times older than we thought almost as old as the first dinosaurs, so yeah highly improbable

[@huntermckinney18]

Think about how many times this similar situation may have occurred, but didn’t end with survival…

[@Alarix246]

That's absolutely normal way for nature to function. Grasping it is one part of becoming adult, mature and reasonable.

[@stephenderry9488]

Your 100 million deceased sperm siblings laugh at drowned monkeys.

[@AndrewRipley-mp5vr]

@@Alarix246 except for thats not how any of that works, the food source and and water is impossible to sustain a big enough population of mammals on any kind of raft for such a prolonged period of time

[@Alarix246]

@@AndrewRipley-mp5vr well I ain't going to argue. I know what I know, and believe that you're going to correct your opinion when the time comes. You only think and wish it didn't work that way.

[@dwally123]

@@AndrewRipley-mp5vr the rafts were up to a kilometer long not little patches like in the video

[@jooliroo]

1:30 LotR reference: one does not simply walk into South America

[@rrrwwwsss]

Valeu!

[@AnHebrewChild]

I was taught the rafting hypothesis at Uni. As the professor pulled up illustrations of monkeys hanging ten on waves, I was convinced she was pulling an academic prank: a gullibility test. But no, it's a real idea, and it's categorically absurd. I think a more elegant answer is that Pangea was an actual thing, and at some point (perhaps spurred by some catalyzing event, like a sudden deluge) the coastlines gradually divided off from each other. But what do I know? I'll tell you tho: that picture of the gorilla carving waves on a longboard is **awesomely hilarious.** 😂

[@JaniceinOR]

Yes, the coastlines did divide from each other, but many millions of years before any primates had evolved. To quote what @benjaminbronnimann3966 wrote in reply to another comment: "Africa and South America split during the jurassic 180 million years ago, the earliest signs of primates appeared 55 million years ago, so for that hypothesis to work primates would have to be over 3 times older than we thought almost as old as the first dinosaurs, so yeah highly improbable"

[@fabrizioburgosmore6220]

2:43 Thnx for including Passimian!!!

[@avu2888]

I love the end message so much. it reminds me that in order for you to feel so small compared to the size & time of the Earth, the Earth has to equally be so large & long. almost anything is possible & our green/blue space rock has proven that time & time again.

[@DaveTexas]

I’m still waiting for that roomful of immortal monkeys and typewriters and an infinite supply of paper to produce the collected works of Shakespeare…

[@phnv]

great and yet simple explanation on the statistics of the whole thing

[@gustafvonderropp7433]

Thank you for your great explenation

[@ThePheenixKing.]

Well today I learned! I always thought/remembered to have heard that they walked not over land but over the frozen sea in the south and north to come over to the Americas. Or maybe that was us humans? Anyways great video!

[@sicksock435446]

Humans probably did so via a northern route.

[@annlakes24]

theres literally a roblox game called monkey raft which is conveniently related to this where you are a monkey on a raft setting to sea, making pit stops at some islands for food, resources, ect. the goal is to reach a safe island where no storm will get there for a while. beans

[@johndelcid0309]

I played that game before, lol. It’s amazing! I never knew it might be based on this 😂

[@joshjo9026]

Danke!

[@MinuteEarth]

Thanks a lot!

[@edwardmacnab354]

some pretty big storms have caused large masses of trees to come down in one fell swoop to be swept away by engorged rivers to the sea

[@johndelcid0309]

This is one of mÿ favorite theories, also, this whole video, I was thinking of Monkey Raft on Roblox 😂

[@jjseandxcefree]

so african migration as a metaphor.

[@The.Renovator]

This makes me think there's probably more people from Africa and Europe that made it to the Americas than we think if primates 30 million years ago could do it, it's just that the trip was so far and dangerous that anyone who made it didn't bother coming back to tell everyone about it.

[@CiceWYZ]

People came from Asia to America with the help of a land bridge between Alaska and Russia.

[@davetaylor1687]

And then they met the people who arrived by boat long before. Latest archaeological evidence plus DNA studies.

[@SwashbucklerSound]

This is the infinite monkey theorem in action, in a story about monkeys. I love it.

[@mrwri]

this video reminds me of that guy who visited the soviet union and just stood outside a building until a queue formed behind him

[@killmeister2271]

this video is exactly why i question EVERYTHING no matter how improbable it seems

[@wile123456]

Meanwhile religious extremists still refuses to accept evolution as a theory because they are too stupid to understand that monkeys and humans share a common ancestor and that current day monkeys aren't the fathers of humans.

[@c_sea1n]

oh hey killmeister

[@killmeister2271]

@@c_sea1n hi lmao good to see u

[@MichaelStem-bf6lv]

Didn't they come packed in boats in the 1700s so that that the south could become richer?

[@nziom]

white humour

[@MichaelStem-bf6lv]

@@nziom who said anything about humor? I was making a simple observation.

[@nziom]

@@MichaelStem-bf6lv oh you're just stupid then

[@Treblaine]

It could have been a tsunami that washed a massive volume of water over a huge area inland and when it receeded it dragged a huge number of trees as well as monkeys who would quickly find a tree as a raft. It may not have been one raft but dozens of trees washed out to sea and the animals most suited to survive on these tree rafts would be small monkeys.

[@overdramaticpan]

I like the little :3 faces that the monkeys are drawn with. Fits the channel's style very well.

[@mr.shahriar7469]

We all know that cameramans are invincible, but today we learned they can time travel too!

[@saulgoodman1046]

Last time i checked they were chained and taken in ships

[@DZYshitdart]

Saul Goodman would HATE you irl😡😡

[@rollitupmars]

Who the Irish?

[@jhwhthemerciful]

We have animal rights now so quit the racist stuff!

[@Ricardorhino88]

​@@rollitupmarsThe main majority of the $l@ve population throughout the world were blk people

[@JulianWuzHear]

2:42 POKÉMON REFERENCE

[@manthanpatki146]

The title could have DEFINITELY been worded better

[@mashucha]

What do you mean

[@fartman23]

@@mashucha it sounds like the Atlantic slave trade and the people that made it were racist

[@jonotarthetyranitar7639]

2:43 there’s a Passimian in the corner?

[@Ironface53]

"It all started with the transatlantic slave trade..."

[@richardmurphy9006]

How come we got no monkey rafts now or recently get bent

[@lifeofdiggy6490]

I mean if the rafting hypothesis has an extremely small probability, why can’t we entertain the probability that there was a land bridge that connected southam and Africa, and all traces have been destroyed due to idk plate techtonics. Or the possibility that monkeys are actually older than are estimates and they crossed millions of years earlier than we thought, when land masses were closer together and/or land bridge due to low water levels. Or perhaps the idea of converging evolution where a common ancestor (e.g. a rat like creature) did the crossing into southamerica long before, and due to evolution monkeys like animals were made simultaneously in both continent.

[@MrXD117]

I have a theory that primates actually evolved in the cretaceous when south america and africa were even closer together

[@hi-nb4uy]

You cannot be naming a video that💀

[@PlumeriaObtusa]

Bro, from 1.379.265 ppl, only you and other 19 though like that. I think y'all got a problem 💀

[@porterhouse937]

Hey! Stop it! We don’t call them that anymore.

[@morwickchesterham3875]

Monkeys floating to America on wooden objects... reminds me of Columbus and his crew...

[@franciszurielburgos3798]

which monkey the workers or a animals? (their the same)

[@BryceCrowe]

????

[@anaalina5964]

So it's pretty much what happen to Zalmoxes in Prehistoric Planet!

[@prophetrexlexful8783]

damn i thought it was about slavetrade

[@eekekdrrlrl]

"We've had monkeys the whole time?They walk outside every day."-👴🏻

[@jonasg.bisgaard1086]

There was a time before humans, learn biology it’s pretty fun and easy to understand.

[@scratchypineapple]

chicago

[@rollitupmars]

Who’s laughing

[@veryepikhuman3958]

​@@rollitupmars why r u so offended at random unfunny jokes in youtube comments. you actively clicked to search by newest so that you could be offended. go live ur life 💀

[@thelostone6981]

A few years ago, a very large section of land slid into the ocean in Norway. There were several houses on it, so yeah; I can see it happening. There are also monkey fossils in Wyoming from @55 million years ago that may be our ancient ancestors, so who knows? This is why I like science, sometimes the evidence takes us to weird places. (We need to be open to the changes that occur when new evidence comes to light, but that’s a very long discussion on epistemology)

[@Avogadros_number]

Agreed, there is too much stubbornness in academics and so many massive holes in the current hypotheses.

[@Nerfherder-oo7iv]

Yea but did that landmass then float for months and months and travel thousands of miles ? 🤡

[@Casafact]

@@Nerfherder-oo7iv Vegetation can aggregate to form structures that float on water, akin to land masses in some ways. These formations, often sizable, can support people and buildings. For more details, refer to the "Floating island" article on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_island

[@SouthParkSnowDay]

they come to europe by boats, usually from libya.

[@wilsonng7554]

1:51 In the ancient time, there are some islands in the middle of the sea, the monkey not just need to travel very far away

[@goblinofsharksnacks]

The probability of us existing right now is so small it borders impossibility, and yet here we are

[@sposso97]

I feel like there's more things that might have happened to make the journey even more possible

[@sicksock435446]

One thing the video didn't mention is a potential food source for the monkeys... dead monkeys. D:

[@RandyMcRandersonii]

Slavery. Next question

[@Yaboidavey]

Bro i had a small pond in my from lawn. I never put fish in it. A baby fish showed up one day. I was confused, how did it get there? Best reason i can assume is that a bird stood on some fish eggs at the lake, an egg got stuck to its feet and it shook the egg off in my pond.

[@marchecamina4124]

The Bible talks about a man called Peleg, in his days the Earth was divided, that event happened hundreds of years after Noah's Flood, so animals and humans would be spread already at that time so when continents split they were already inhabited, that could explain why there are animals in such remote or separate places.

[@Monkofthecaribbean]

The bible is full of fairy tales. This video is based on reality.

[@MarcColten73]

According to my father this is how my grandparents came to America. Rhinos are a different story.

[@theclocktower3258]

It reminds me of this experiment you can do where you have a massive crowd of people stand up and flip a coin. Those who flip heads sit down, tails stay standing. Eventually you will almost always end up with a single person standing. What are the odds that this specific person would be the last one standing after all those flips? Plus they must have flipped tails X number of times which on its own is pretty unlikely. But not only is this outcome expected, it's practically guaranteed (not counting some statistical anomalies). Makes me wonder if the behaviors of some animals might unintentionally make them more prone to end up on these voyages? Perhaps in the way they shelter from storms, build nests, or play in the water could be factors.

[@ice_wallow_come8773]

A lot of them where brought in boats.

[@SquidMonke4]

Thats not true why the hell would europeans have monkeys on boats

[@saulgoodman1046]

To work the farms idiot get a joke sometimes​@@SquidMonke4

[@arislopes1924]

please do a video of how will islands in the Caribbean like greater Antilles be affected if new world moneys would be introduced to the islands. Would they benefit or harm the ecosystem in the Antilles, since primates are vitals for central & South America ecosystems