here's an abridged simplified version. during the miocene, the climate was substantially different than to what it was today. europe was a subtropical paradise with rainforests. primitive apes moved into anatolia from africa and developed into the griphopiths roughly 13 million years ago. the griphopiths then moved into europe and into asia. the european griphopiths underwent intense adaptive radiation in europe to fulfill all the niches that existed and developed all the critical characteristics associated with apes, larger brains, fully mobile arms and legs, a shorter thick lumbar cranium, a mucus producing sinus etc etc. these apes, classified as the dryopiths, saw the peak of their development during the late miocene, and as climates began to cool in europe they moved back into africa where they dominated the niches and developed into the extant apes we know today, including us. giraffes, rhinoceros, and other african fauna also originated in eurasia actually
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