Where primates evolved

Where primates evolved

Author: PNAS September 29, 2025 Duration: 10:48

Where primates evolved

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Jorge Avaria-Llautureo and Chris Venditti explain why the evolution of primates likely occurred in cold, dry climates rather than in tropical forests.

In this episode, we cover:
•[00:00] Introduction
•[00:58] Evolutionary biologist Jorge Avaria-Lautureo explains the prevailing hypothesis that primates evolved in a tropical climate
•[02:54] Evolutionary biologist Chris Venditti introduces evidence suggesting a different origin climate.
•[03:54] Avaria discusses how the researchers reconstructed the climate of early primate species.
•[05:05] Venditti and Avaria explain why it was important to use standardized climate definitions in this study.
•[07:29] Avaria describes the results of the study.
•[08:18]Venditti talks about the importance of understanding early primates' climates.
•[09:21] Avaria and Venditti talk about the study's caveats and limitations.
•[10:22] Conclusion.

About Our Guests:

Jorge Avaria-Llautureo
Postdoctoral scholar
University of Reading

Chris Venditti
Professor
University of Reading

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2423833122

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Tune into PNAS Science Sessions for a direct line to the people shaping modern science. Produced by PNAS, this podcast offers more than just summaries of published research; it’s where you hear the candid, often personal stories behind the headlines. Each episode features concise conversations with the researchers themselves-from emerging voices to established Academy members-alongside the policymakers whose decisions are informed by this work. You’ll get a genuine sense of the questions that drive these experts, the unexpected hurdles they face in their labs and field studies, and why their findings matter right now. The scope is deliberately wide, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of science itself, covering discoveries that range from microscopic processes to planetary-scale phenomena. This isn't about dry lectures, but about capturing the human endeavor of investigation. For anyone curious about how science actually unfolds and wants to understand the context of breakthroughs as they happen, this podcast serves as an essential, engaging resource. It connects the dots between a published paper in a prestigious journal and the real-world implications that ripple out from it.
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