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Researchers were able to unearth a “mother lode” of a half dozen fossil primate species recently in southern China and it seems that such has shed some more light on the fate of some primates after the Eocene-Oligocene transition.

For those who are unaware, the Eocene-Oligocene period was when drastic cooling made Asia as one of the hard places to reside in. Such was caused by the rearrangement of the earth’s major tectonic plates where a rapid drop in temperature and humidity caused hard times for the primates of that time.

Ideally, primates preferred to live in warmer and wet settings and such forced some inhabitants to move to North American and/or Europe. Despite that however, there were some who managed to survive and tell the tale. And much of that was because anthropoid primates were able to adjust and grasp the arc of early primate and human evolution.

"We had a lot of evidence previously that the earliest anthropoids originated in Asia. At some point, later in the Eocene, these Asian anthropoids got to Africa and started to diversify there. At some point, the geographic focal point of anthropoid evolution—monkeys, apes and humans—shifted from Asia to Africa. But we never understood when and why. Now, we know. The Eocene-Oligocene climate crisis virtually wiped out Asian anthropoids, so the only place they could evolve to become later monkeys, apes and humans was Africa," bares K Christopher Beard, senior curator at the University of Kansas' Biodiversity Institute and co-author of the report.

The paper is a result of a decade’s work of fieldwork over southern China, where six new species identified through jaw and tooth fragments that survived that time. It is believed that these species were able to survive with tough enamel surfaces and serve as "fingerprints" to identify ancient animals.

"The fossil record usually gives you a snapshot here or there of what ancient life was like. You typically don't get a movie," Beard adds.

Beard also adds that ancient Chinese primates were tropical tree dwellers. One species was known as the Oligotarsius rarus which he claims was "incredibly similar" to the modern tarsier many of us see today in the Philippines and Indonesian islands.

Proof of that is the fossil teeth included in the report, something that seems identical to the present day tarsiers we see.

Beard adds that if it were not for the Eocene-Oligocene transition, primate evolution would have likely happened in Asia rather than in Africa where Homo sapiens emerged. The findings somehow shed some light on the real score as far as the vulnerability to climate change endured by all primates.