article_snippet: Now scientists have unraveled a 180 year old mystery of the evolutionary origins of South America's hooved mammals that died out 10,000 years ago.
article_snippet: Fossils of an ancient primate found in the Amazon may be the first monkey to have traveled from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to South America.
article_snippet: The discovery suggest that monkeys first arrived in South America nearly 10 million years earlier than previously thought.
article_snippet: Scientists believe the first primates traveled to South America, which was once an isolated island before an isolated island joined to South America three million years ago, from Africa on natural rafts that drifted across the Atlantic Ocean.
article_snippet: However, evidence for when this epic journey occurred has been patchy and the oldest fossil of a monkey found in the New World was 26 million years old found in Bolivia.
article_snippet: But now fossilised teeth, found on a riverbank in a remote part of the Amazon in Peru, that have been dated at 36 million years old suggest the crossing from Africa may have occurred far earlier.
article_snippet: A reconstruction of  the 38 million year old Perupithecus ucayalensis (left) found in South America is shown above alongside a species
article_snippet: A reconstruction of  the 38 million year old Perupithecus ucayalensis (left) found in South America closely resembled - Talahpithecus parvus, that lived in Libya 39 milion years ago .
article_snippet: The scientists say A reconstruction of  the 38 million year old Perupithecus ucayalensis (left) found in South America could allow The scientists to look back in time 10 times farther than current techniques using ancient DNA.
article_snippet: However, DNA breaks down quickly in the warm wet conditions found in tropical areas that cover much of South America.
article_snippet: This suggests the strange South American animals migrated into the continent from North America around 60 million years ago just after a mass extinction killed off many of the non-avian dinosaurs.
highlights_snippet: Researchers looked at 48 fossils of hooved animals from South America .
  