Plate Tectonics caused Hominoid Splittings?

Speciation in mammals = mostly allopatric?
islands, rivers, mountains, splitting or collapsing continents...

Atypical evolution is often seen on islands:
- Miocene Hominoidea?
- early-Pleistocene Homo?

~25 Ma Arabafrica approaching Eurasia formed island archipels, plenty of coastal forests:
Catarrhini reaching these islands began wading upright + climbing arms overhead = bipedal early Hominoidea, google "aquarboreal".
~20 Ma hylobatids followed the N-Tethys ocean coastal forests -> 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, aethiopicus, boisei... -> today G.gorilla & G.beringei.
~5 Ma the Red Sea opened into the Gulf (caused by Zanclean mega-flood 5.33 Ma? Francesca mansfield): Homo & Pan split:
–Pan went right: E.Afr.coasts -> S-Rift fm ->Transvaal ->Au.africanus, robustus, habilis... (// Gorilla) -> today P.troglodytes & P.paniscus,
–Homo went left: S.Asian coasts (no African retroviral DNA in Homo) ->Java, later Peking, Flores, S-Eurasia, Africa etc.

No doubt: early-Pleist.H.erectus in Java were shallow-divers for shellfish:
• Archaic Homo's atypical tooth-wear is caused by "sand & oral processing of marine mollusks", Towle cs 2022 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.24500
• H.erectus s.s. fossilized in coastal sediments, e.g. Mojokerto amid barnacles + corals, Trinil: Pseudodon + Elongaria edible shellfish, Sangiran-17 "brackish marsh near the coast".
• Stephen Munro discovered sea-shell engravings made by H.erectus, Joordens cs 2015 Nature 518:228–231 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25470048/
• Ear exostoses (H.erectus & H.neand.) develop after years of cold(er) water irrigation https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5696936/
• Pachy-osteo-sclerosis is slow+shallow-diving adaptation (de Buffrénil cs 2010 J.Mamm.Evol.17:101-120), e.g. erectus’ parietal bone is 2x as thick as in gorillas.
• Brain size in erectus (2x apes/australopiths) is facilitated by aquatic foods, e.g. DHA docosahexaenoic acid in shellfish… cf. Odontocetes dolphins, Pinnipedia.
• Pleistocene descendants or relatives colonized islands far oversea: fossils Flores & Luzon https://www.academia.edu/36193382/Coastal_Dispersal_of_Pleistocene_Homo_2018
• Homo’s stone tool use & dexterity is typical for molluscivores, e.g. sea-otters.

Mid-Pleist.H.neand. had less pachy-osteo-sclerosis than erectus (diving parttime?), and fossilised at coasts & rivers:
did they seasonally follow the Rhine-Neander, Meuse etc. inland? the salmon trek??

Late-Pleist.H.sapiens diving -> wading -> walking today.

Google "Verhaegen Bonne English" 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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