The Miocene Epoch
When was it?
24 to 5 million years ago.
What was going on?
India impacts with Asia. The first Apes appear.
What were the continents like?
Things get to look pretty much modern during this period; around 14 MYA, India impacts
with Asia, beginning to form the Himalayas and starting a major cooling trend.
What kind of life existed?
Things are looking pretty modern; there is a major adaptive radiation of apes, as the most
primitive (genus Proconsul) evolve in Africa and then give way to more advanced forms
(the Dryopithecines and Sivapithecines) which spread out of Africa and into Europe and Asia.
Either in the terminal Miocene, or the very early Pliocene, the common ancestor of the modern
African Apes (Humans, Chimps, and Gorillas) undergoes 2 or more speciation events leading to
the three major modern species.