Why are there no monkeys in North America?

[Nitro]

This is a question that has always bothered me. I don't know why. Perhaps the answer was figured out by science decades ago and put to rest in dusty books, or perhaps we have no idea to this day. Just for the sake of resolving the matter amongst ourselves, I've posted this poll to put the matter to a vote.

 

Vote on natural science? Sure. Why not?

 

 

Originally posted by Zoom Rabbit in The Harbor.

[Boba Rhett]

Monkeys are delicious and nutritious.

[Mort-Hog]

Monkeys live in a classless, equal, peaceful society. Sure sounds like communism to me.

[Ray Jones]

vive la resistance, nitro. i'll choose start liking you.

 

short range emitters issues cause 'no monkeys at NA'-myst!!

[edlib]

Ahh! It's back!

 

Is it just me, or has this thead has become the cause celebre of an unspoken conflict. What is this, the 3rd incarnation? (Not counting the Feedback request to re-open the original)

It has taken a life of it's own at this point, and will never be stopped.

Shut it down and two more will take it's place!

 

Ha hah ha hah ha!

 

 

 

Oh, and it's the Martha Stewart thing...

[Ray Jones]

Thanks to the Mods in here!!!

[edlib]

(Moderated by: Darth Sceltor, Fondas, and Tek Gunner)

 

Yeah,.. these guys do a great job keeping us in line!

 

[Nitro]

I noticed the same thing last night, ed.

[Redwing]

Where the heck are the three above-listed people? I haven't seen any of them in...well...ever.

 

Comparatively.

 

Of course, there's always Ike.

 

As for the poll, I vote "All of the Above".

 

 

edit: For the curious, the vengeful, and the just plain confused, the refugees are from here.

[Ray Jones]

Originally posted by Redwing

 

edit: For the curious, the vengeful, and the just plain confused, the refugees are from here.

 

 

[edlib]

Originally posted by Redwing

Where the heck are the three above-listed people? I haven't seen any of them in...well...ever.

Comparatively.

Of course, there's always Ike.

Well, Skelty disappeared around the time of the big merge, (I can't remeber if was before or after though,) Tek left when Nute said he was going to (so did PB,) and Fondas still stops in once in a while, but never stays long.

 

I do miss them all, though.

 

It seems to me we have become kinda 'self-moderating' at this point,.. and then there's always Ike, Niner, and all the RS mods and supermods who drop in all the time.

[Jem]

No monkey??

 

Try harder...

 

ok, here`s a little hint:

 

 

[Lujayne]

Good grief, someone's got too much time one thier hands!

[Wildstar]

Here's a thought...

 

If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?

[Nitro]

Probably the same reason there's like thirty-three thousand and one different kind of fish.

[Zoom Rabbit]

Nitro, you are a prince!

 

Although they did eventually re-open it in the Harbor.

 

Jem: I LOVE IT!!!

 

Wildstar: We didn't evolve from monkeys and apes...to be precise, we, monkeys and apes all evolved from something else.

 

Well, I guess XWA knows where I've been hiding lately, huh?

[RoyTordesLegend]

Originally posted by Redwing

Where the heck are the three above-listed people? I haven't seen any of them in...well...ever.

 

We're the cooolll squad!!!!

 

Ray - say something...back me up;)

[Nute Gunray]

Serious answer:

North America has more predators than other places. Sure, Africa has cheetahs and lions and such, but North America has bears, 50 million different kinds of great cat, coyotes, wolves, foxes, and predator huge birds. The threat enviroment for a primate was far different than in locations which primates arose. Yes, everywhere has predators, but in North America there were big, numerous, and powerful predators that live where primates would live. For example, what would possibly try to eat a 500 pound male gorilla? Nothing in Asia, that's what. well, the part of Asia that isn't russia that is. 500 pound gorilla isn't going to last long when its predatory opponent is 1500 pound Kodiak bear.

[Zoom Rabbit]

There are no monkeys in north america because they turned into Nute Gunray.

 

(Hmm. Interesting answer. There aren't kodiak bears everywhere here, though. If there was, they would have polished off bigfoot long ago.)

 

(Crap! I almost revealed the actual point of this thread! Shut up, shut up, shut up...)

[Ray Jones]

*Hides in the back..*

 

Errrm yeah roy yeah .. go ahead.

[Zoom Rabbit]

Ray, Roy, relax. Here at XWA you are my honored guests, as are all Harborites. Here you will be treated with warmth and respect. (Just don't do anything to embarrass me! )

 

This is where Nitrous, Edlib and I *come* from. Behold the source of the lunacy...BEHOLD IT!

 

Anyway, Nute, I do have one logic fault with your argument. There are plenty of animals living in north america that are smaller than monkeys (squirrels), monkey-sized (bobcats) and even much bigger than the greatest of the great apes (moose) that have managed to survive the evolutionary process concurrent with kodiak bears. Unless you mean to say that bears have it out for monkeys.

 

Actually guys...I did sneak a serious hypothesis into that poll. Perhaps monkeys were wiped out by hunting, with early stone age american natives to blame. Far-fetched, I know.

 

I'm just think that there should be monkeys here. There are monkeys in south america, africa, asia...and unless I'm mistaken, they were once populous in europe, although they were hunted into extinction in Roman times along with the rest of europe's large animal population. Does anyone here have the paleological schooling to tell us at least if monkeys were present in the american fossil record?

 

Not a serious topic? Bah. I could turn my shopping list into a serious topic, if I chose to...

[edlib]

Google tells me "Yes, there were."

 

"Climatic change and interspecific competition drove North American primates to extinction and pushed Eurasian primates southward."

 

And:

 

"A tiny tooth recently found on an isolated peak in central Oregon represents the youngest known fossil primate in North America. The 4mm (0.15 inch) specimen was found within John Day Fossil Beds National Monument during routine prospecting under the direction of the park's paleontologist Ted Fremd. It was discovered by John Zancanella of the Bureau of Land Management who was working in the park on an interagency team.

The isolated lower molar is unique because it is the only North American primate fossil of the late Oligocene Epoch (28 to 24 million years ago) to be found in proximity to volcanic ash layers. Using new, high precision argon isotopes, scientists are able to date these ash tuffs. Previously described evidence of this animal in the Pacific Northwest was limited to a fragmentary maxilla with minimal stratigraphic data."

 

The ancient North American primates died out, and were never replaced with newer species, probably due to continental isolation from the rest of the world.

For a good chunk of it's history, this continent was covered under miles of ice. Not a climate primates tend to enjoy. They moved elsewhere... especially after the evil, immortal, power-mad, shape-shifting space entity we now know as "Martha Stewart" took up residence here and begain forcing them to use flowered prints everywhere.

[Nute Gunray]

Squirrels wouldn't compete against bears for food. A gorilla would. Mooses and eagles and nittany lions don't compete with bears (except in teh world of college athletics). A bear happily goes about its day and occasionally maybe eats a squirrel when it requires meat-protein or something. If you'll also notice, there aren't bears where there are gorillas. Around here we only have sissy little black bears that wage unseen epic battles against the "mountain lion." That damn animal has too many different names. I'm partial to Nittany Lion because it's the mascot of my favorite college. What was I talking about?

 

Bears, angered over what happened to their whatever-the-Latin-word-for-bears-is cousins during the Pliocene Overkill thing, have decided to strike back with terrible vengenace. They will destroy the primate menace where ever it strikes.

 

No, there were no primates in North America, apparently, until Man showed up and started killing everything. There was everything running around (that is to say of all types of animals: cats, horses, elephants, rabbits, and such), except primates missed the boat or something.

 

The epic Primates versus Bear versus Big Cat war continues on...

[Zoom Rabbit]

Well, looks like Edlib has solved the problem for us. It seems there was some truth to Nute's idea after all...

 

Having established that there were monkeys at one time in north america, we can wonder if there were great apes here as well. Perhaps there were even early hominds living on the continent...

 

[Ray Jones]

..hmm ..

 

i wonder how this notclosedyetthread could spread that massive and finally turned into a informative forum discussion pointing out what actually seems going on with north american apes ..