Two important studies from evolutionary anthropology and cosmology have forced us to reconceptualize our past. In order to properly contexualize these discoveries we must develop an understanding of deep time. What is the best approach to understanding time scales of millions and billions of years?
The scale of things becomes even more mind boggling when you realise that the migration out of Africa wasn't done by people deliberately setting out to explore; but by people being forced to spread further afield by increasing population sizes. It took us 50,000 years to fill up the planet. When you realise how gradual and imperceptible it was the time frames seem even more daunting.
How did I not know that lemurs actually rafted to Madagascar? Great Wikipedia page in general.Lemurs arrived in Madagascar around 62 to 65 mya by rafting on mats of vegetation at a time when ocean currents favored oceanic dispersal to the island.
Haha few people know that lemurs rafted (Madagascar split from South Asia 88 million years ago so any animals that arrived after that did so in an unconventional fashion)!