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The truth is that we don't know where we, homo sapiens, came from.
In his 1871 work, In The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin speculated
that humans originated in Africa, and that we evolved from an
ancestor who was different from any currently living species.
The Miocene epoch existed from around 23 to 5.3 million years ago,
and a number of fossil ape genera from that era have been found.
However, they show a combination of features common to both
"orthograde” (upright) and “pronograde" (walking on all fours) body
plan, which has led some scientists to exclude the Miocene apes
from the human lineage, and there is no scientific consensus on the
evolutionary role played by these fossil apes.
The journey from monkeys to us. Source: Almécija/AAAS
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Hominin fossils have been found in eastern and central Africa, and
possibly also in Europe. Fossils of over 50 genera of ancient apes
have been found in Africa and Eurasia, however, as Dr. Sergio
Almécija, a researcher in the Division of Anthropology at the
American Museum of Natural History told Sci-News "... there is no
scientific consensus on the evolutionary role played by these fossil
apes."
Kelsey Pugh, one of the study co-authors, added that, "The unique
and sometimes unexpected features and combinations of features
observed among fossil apes, which often differ from those of living
apes, are necessary to untangle which features hominins inherited
from our ape ancestors and which are unique to our lineage."
Miocene ape fossil locations. Source: Source: Almécija/AAAS
Like the lyrics in British band The Who's 1978 song "Who Are You?"
Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really want to know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell me who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Because I really want to know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
we'd all like to know who our ancient ancestor was and how we came
to be.