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The Pondaung Primate

Pondaung is a geographical region in Myanmar lying partly in the Sagaing and partly in Magway Divisions. It has become well known world wide due to the discovery of fossilized remains of anthropoid primate some years back by both Myanmar and foreign geologists. Teams of experts on the subject from the United States.

France and Japan have made research trips to this area with the cooperation of the Office of the Strategic Studies of the Ministry of Defenceand geologists of various Universities of the Ministry of Education and discovered substantial forsilized remains not only of the anthropoid primate but also of some wild fauna and flora. After laboratory tests and analysis of their finds and scientific discussions at international forum. a consensus has been reached that "Pondaung anthropoid primate fossils are 40 million years older than than their Egyptian counterparts which . were once considered the oldest".

Origin of Mankind?

The Bahinia find is important because it tells us that there was a complex community of primates living in Asia. a tremendous anthropoid radiation much earlier than anyone thought.
We didn't have that kind of information about Asia before. only Africa. Now we may have to change our whole story about anthropoid origins and evolution.'' said the researchers.
The fossilized remains of many early anthropoids have been found in Africa. most from a single rich site in Egypt. Many scientists thus believed that Africa. already believed by many scientists to be the cradle of humanity. also gave rise to earlier ancestors. But a number of fossils have recently been found in Thailand. China. and Myanmar. They are between 49 million and 33 million years old and include some of the most primitive-looking anthropoids ever found.

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