- Published on: 06 November 2018
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The best evidence we have suggests that, while Caviomorpha originated in South America, they came from ancestors in Africa, over 40 million years ago. So how did they get there?
This episode was written by Genevieve Perdue.
Thanks to Ceri Thomas for the Josephoartigasia monesi reconstruction. Check out more of Ceri's paleoart at http://alphynix.tumblr.com and http://nixillustration.com
Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios
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References:
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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282577627_Evolution_of_the_caviomorph_rodents_a_complete_phylogeny_and_timetree_of_living_genera - Runtime : 10:20
- dinosaurs dinos paleo paleontology scishow eons pbs pbs digital studios hank green john green complexly fossils natural history Caviomorpha guinea pigs capybara chinchillas porcupines South America Africa Hystricognathi infraorbital foramina hystricognaths Caviomorphs old world new world molecular clock Eocene Gondwana rafts Rio Grande Rise Walvis Ridge Atlantic Ocean adaptive radiation sweepstakes colonization
COMMENTS: 40
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J Garberg 1 weeks agoDumb humans, animals could walk across before the flood..that did occur in our past. Supposed science majors gotta have someone else wipe for them
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Richard Willette 2 weeks ago
maybe they made tiny little boats to get to S America but lost the technology over millions of years
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ronkirk50 2 weeks ago
This hypothesis should be tested to get a general idea how long the trip might have taken.
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Aaron J 1 months ago
(someone help explain it to me) sooo... why couldn't the common ancestor have derived in Africa and when South America and Africa split, that common ancestor evolved differently on South America and the African ones stayed the same? This would mean the old world rodents evolved before the split, and when it did split they formed the new world rodents. tbh i can picture that more than a rodent rafting across loll
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Rams495 2 months ago
Tsunamis probably did this all the time. When you look at the crap that came to the west coast from Japan you can see that stuff can move much further than these would've had to float.
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Imaginose314159 2 months ago
If they were eating the rafts along way, such as twigs and leaves that would provide some moisture right?
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Rob Beecroft 3 months ago
Horse sized rodents! Wow... please do an episode about them. And please do an episode about the smallest horses too!
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Clyde Balcom 3 months ago
How to get fresh water on the ocean? Rain. Vegetation rafts would be able to hold rainwater.
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Ravi Sanghvi 4 months ago
So Christopher Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci, did not discover sea route to Americas?A rat discovered sea route to Americas long ago?Americas should be celeberating "Rodent Jerry day" every year then.
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sharkfinbite 4 months ago
Capybara don't look cute. Only you sheltered domesticated people would consider it cute
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Sir Dude 4 months ago
I think the chain of islands and shallow water is the only theory that even remotely plausible. Not only would it explain the other "sweepstakes colonizers" it far more plausible than a raft of random debris that somehow managed to cross the open ocean in 11-8 days without breaking apart and without the passengers dieing of dehydration and possibly malnutrition. Also how can we be sure that the ocean that is half size of our modern ocean between Africa and south America is the same? I would think that it would be at least significantly different If not completely. I understand that this is not fully understood and that PBS Eons is trying to give all the information they can
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Rios Salvajes 4 months ago
Kallie is my favorite host. She can make clear and interesting the most complicated thing. And she's gorgeous too.
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