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The earliest apes evolved from a common ancestor with monkeys, probably in East Africa around 26 million years ago. Those apes, the best known of which is Proconsul, walked on all fours and lived in trees like monkeys but had a big body, no tail, and a larger skull and brain. At the time, Africa was a tropical Eden, full of deciduous woodlands and rain forests, where the apes feasted primarily on fruit. The apes living there thrived and diversified, with as many as 14 ape species identified from the fossil record.
The world, though, was gradually cooling. The polar ice caps expanded, and sea levels fell. By 21 million years ago Africa, which had been an island continent like Australia and Antarctica today, became connected to Eurasia by the first of a series of land bridges. Giraffes, elephants, antelope and even aardvarks migrated from Africa to Eurasia, according to fossil digs by one of us (Andrews) and others in Turkey, Germany and Spain. Apes were among the emigrants. By 16.5 million years ago apes such as Griphopithecus and Kenyapithecus were living at a site near the modern-day Turkish village of Paşlar.
In Europe the newly arrived apes flourished at first in subtropical evergreen forests and moist, broadleaf woodlands, in part because fruit was plentiful. They diversified into at least eight species in five genera, including Dryopithecus and Ankarapithecus. Andrews and his colleagues concluded from 16.5-million-year-old deposits near Paşalar that seasonal climate resembled that of northern India now, with summer monsoon rains followed by long, dry periods and cool, frost-free winters.