Today, the study of the origin and evolution of primates is a subject of great interest. The attraction is due to their diverse adaptations and the fact that we must search for the human roots in this group.

 In Catalonia, in addition, we have an extraordinary fossil registry of primates that deserves our attention.

These include fossils from the Eocene, between 33 to 55 million years ago, with the deposits of the Pre-Pyrenean and the Catalan central depressions -very rich in primates- to deposits of the diverse river basins of the Neogen, between 23 million years ago and the present time. These are Vallès-Penedès, Seu d'Urgell, Cerdanya, which have the greatest Eurasiatic registry of the evolution of anthropomorphous.

Within this framework, the SOMHI (Searching for the Origins of Modern Hominoids Initiative) project has been developed. This project attempts to document the arrival of the great apes in Eurasia, to find out what is the origin of the group and to find out how the radiation of the diverse families and subfamilies took place until their extinction in Europe, about 8 million years ago. In a very specific way, this project is articulated from the extraordinary fossil registry of the Baix Anoia.
The SOMHI project is integrated within the macro-project of international research project RHOI (Researching Hominid Origins Initiative) directed from the University of California, Berkeley. This involvement allows adding efforts towards common objectives, exchanging experiences and finding complementary factors.