Meeting of the Americas came early, study suggests
Crystals from Panama found in Colombia suggest continents connected over 13 million years ago

CONTINENTAL CONNECTION The seaway separating North and South America, illustrated as it was 35 million years ago (left), may have closed more than 13 million years ago and about 10 million years earlier than previously thought, new evidence suggests. Today, Central America separates the modern Atlantic and Pacific oceans (right).
Ron Blakey (CC BY-SA 3.0)