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Europe was the birthplace of mankind, not

Africa, scientists find
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208
An artist's

reconstruction of Graecopithecus freybergi, left, with the jawbone and tooth found in Bulgaria
and Greece  Credit: University of Toronto 
 Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
22 May 2017 • 7:00pm
The history of human evolution has been rewritten after scientists discovered that Europe was
the birthplace of mankind, not Africa. 
Currently, most experts believe that our human lineage split from apes around seven million
years ago in central Africa, where hominids remained for the next five million years before
venturing further afield.
But two fossils of an ape-like creature which had human-like teeth have been found in
Bulgaria and Greece, dating to 7.2 million years ago.
The discovery of the creature, named Graecopithecus freybergi, and nicknameded ‘El Graeco'
by scientists, proves our ancestors were already starting to evolve in Europe 200,000 years
before the earliest African hominid.
An international team of researchers say the findings entirely change the beginning of
human history and place the last common ancestor of both chimpanzees and humans - the so-
called Missing Link - in the Mediterranean region.
To some extent this is a newly discovered missing linkProfessor Nikolai Spassov, Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences
At that time climate change had turned Eastern Europe into an open savannah which forced
apes to find new food sources, sparking a shift towards bipedalism, the researchers believe.
“This study changes the ideas related to the knowledge about the time and the place of the
first steps of the humankind,” said Professor Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian Academy of
Sciences.
“Graecopithecus is not an ape. He is a member of the tribe of hominins and the direct ancestor
of homo.
“The food of the Graecopithecus was related to the rather dry and hard savannah vegetation,
unlike that of the recent great apes which are living in forests.  Therefore, like humans, he has
wide molars and thick enamel.
The species could be the first hominid ever to exist  Credit: University of Toronto 
"To some extent this is a newly discovered missing link. But missing links will always exist ,
because evolution is infinite chain of subsequent forms. Probably  El Graeco's face will
resemble a great ape, with shorter canines."
An artist's impression of Graecopithecus  Credit: National Museum of Natural History - Sofia,
Assen Ignatov
The team analysed the two known specimens of Graecopithecus freybergi: a lower jaw from
Greece and an upper premolar tooth from Bulgaria.
Using computer tomography, they were able to visualise the internal structures of the fossils
and show that the roots of premolars are widely fused.
"While great apes typically have two or three separate and diverging roots, the roots of
Graecopithecus converge and are partially fused - a feature that is characteristic of modern
humans, early humans and several pre-humans,", said lead researcher Professor Madelaine
Böhme of the University of Tübingen.
The lower jaw, has additional dental root features, suggesting that the species was a hominid.
The tooth of Graecopithecus Credit: University of Tubingen
The species was also found to be several hundred thousand years older than the oldest African
hominid, Sahelanthropus tchadensis which was found in Chad.
"We were surprised by our results, as pre-humans were previously known only from sub-
Saharan Africa," said doctoral student Jochen Fuss, a Tübingen PhD student who conducted
this part of the study.
Professor David Begun, a University of Toronto paleoanthropologist and co-author of this
study, added: "This dating allows us to move the human-chimpanzee split into the
Mediterranean area."
During the period the Mediterranean Sea went through frequent periods of drying up
completely, forming a land bridge between Europe and Africa and allowing apes and early
hominids to pass between the continents.
The jawbone of Graecopithecus Credit: University of Tubingen 
The team believe that evolution of hominids may have been driven by dramatic environmental
changes which sparked the formation of the North African Sahara more than seven million
years ago and pushed species further North.
They found large amounts of Saharan sand in layers dating from the period, suggesting that it
lay much further North than today.
Professor Böhme added: "Our findings may eventually change our ideas about the origin of
humanity. I personally don't think that the descendants of Graecopithecus die out, they may
have spread to Africa later. The split of chimps and humans was a single event. Our data
support the view that this split was happening in the eastern Mediterranean - not in Africa.
"If accepted, this theory will indeed alter the very beginning of human history."
However some experts were more skeptical about the findings.
Retired anthropologist and author Dr Peter Andrews, formerly at the Natural History Museum
in London, said: "It is possible that the human lineage originated in Europe, but very
substantial fossil evidence places the origin in Africa, including several partial skeletons and
skulls.
"I would be hesitant about using a single character from an isolated fossil to set against the
evidence from Africa."
The new research was published in the journal PLOS One.

Related Topics
 Chad
 Africa
 Europe
 Fossils
 Bulgaria
 History
 Human evolution
 Chimpanzees
 Humans TV Series
 Evolution
  Apes
 Climate change
 Greece
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208
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