Tristan hotspot

[1] It is also believed to be closely connected with the Paraná and Etendeka flood basalt provinces, which formed over the hotspot during the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean.

[4] O'Connor et al. 2012 found that the hotspot trails in the eastern South Atlantic (Tristan, Gough, Discovery, Shona, and possibly Bouvet) started forming synchronously 44 to 41 Ma.

[5] The hotspots of the eastern South Atlantic formed along the plume generation zones of the African large low seismic velocity province (LLSVP).

[6] Arnason et al. also estimated the Platyrrhini–Catarrhini divergence to have occurred around 70 Ma and found that the latter evolved in South America before their dispersal into Africa.

Arnason et al. hypothesised that the Rio Grande–Walvis Ridge system was exposed above sea level and formed a chain of islands across the South Atlantic during the Maastrichtian and Palaeocene 70 to 65 Ma allowing the primates to disperse across the ocean.