[Doctor Stochastic]

Re: Continental Drift. I knew a guy (plant fossil expert) who had drawn family trees of fossil plants on both sides of the South Atlantic. He did his work in the early 1950s before plate techtonics was a well-established theory. What he found was that very old trees consisted of identical species in both Africa and South America. Younger trees were consisted of slightly different species (though clearly descended from the older species) on both sides of the ocean. Even younger (still many millions of years old) trees were quite different. He attributed the split in the tree of trees as evidence for having Africa and South America joined, then later being separated. There is a clear cladistic bifurcation in the fossil record.

Of course, the problem with the splitting of Africa and South America (before plate techtonics) was in finding a mechanism.

[PatrickHenry]

I knew a guy (plant fossil expert) who had drawn family trees of fossil plants on both sides of the South Atlantic. He did his work in the early 1950s before plate techtonics was a well-established theory.

I think it's the same with New World and Old World monkeys, and several other species as well. Funny how it all fits together -- geology, plate tectonics, and evolution too. (Or maybe Noah steered a strange course while dropping all those critters off.)