Carbon isotope excursion suggests that the Asian
Teilhardina asiatica is the oldest member of the genus; the youngest is the North American
Teilhardina brandti. However finds in Wyoming suggest
Teilhardina may have originated in North America. There are four hypotheses that have been proposed to try and explain the geographic distribution: • Africa was the origination of the primates and then they dispersed to Europe- Greenland and finally North America. • Primates originated in North America then dispersed to Asia through the Bering route and later passed through Greenland to finally reach Europe. • Primates originated in Asia or Africa and dispersed through North America and finally reaching western Europe. • Asia was the primate’s origination, they then dispersed eastward towards North America and westward to Europe. At one point a hypothesis arose that the primates may have originated in India prior to the plate collision with Asia near the Paleocene-Eocene boundary and they spread into Asia afterwards. These hypotheses were re-evaluated using new morphological evidence and earliest records of
Teilhardina species from the continents concerned. The researchers concluded that none of the hypotheses fit the pattern that had emerged from their studies. It is now believed that at the beginning of the
Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum Teilhardina dispersed from east to west. The earliest primates migrated across the Turgai Straits from South Asia to Europe, finally dispersing to North America through Greenland. ==Taxonomy==