A newly identified monkey, named Turkish AnatoliaOur origin story may be challenged again, according to a new study. The fossilized monkey, which was found at an 8.7-million-year-old site in Turkey, indicates that the ancestors of humans and African apes evolved in Europe before migrating to Africa between 9 and 7 million years ago.
The well-preserved partial skull, which was discovered in 2015, allowed the team to use software to determine evolutionary relationships. Fossil analysis revealed this a. Turkish It could have been the size of a large male chimpanzee, or the size of an average female gorilla.
The team has placed the monkey as one of the first hominins, a group that includes African apes, including chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos. The oldest known humans were found in Africa. However, the team believes that this new fossil adds evidence that the ancestors of African apes and humans were in Europe before they were in Africa.
“Our findings also indicate that hominins not only evolved in western and central Europe, but spent more than 5 million years evolving there and spreading to the eastern Mediterranean before eventually spreading to Africa, perhaps as a result of changing environments.” and declining forests,” says Professor David Begin. A, from the University of Toronto’s Department of Anthropology, said: press release.
“The members of this radiation who Anatolovius Affiliations are currently only defined in Europe and Anatolia.”
According to the team, Anatolovius It likely lived alongside animals similar to the megafauna found in Africa today, with many of them migrating to Africa sometime after 8 million years ago.
“We have no limb bones, but judging from its jaws and teeth, the animals next to it, and the geological indications of its environment, Anatolovius Professor Ayla Sevim Erol from the University of Ankara added: “They may have lived in relatively open conditions, unlike the forest environment in which great apes live.”
“More like what we think the environments of early humans in Africa looked like. Strong jaws and large teeth with dense enamel indicate a diet that includes hard or tough food items from terrestrial sources like roots and roots.”
It is still possible that the monkey’s ancestor came from Africa to Europe before this, although there is not much evidence.
“These findings contradict the long-held view that African apes and humans evolved exclusively in Africa. While remains of early hominins are plentiful in Europe and Anatolia, they were completely absent from Africa until the first hominins appeared there about 7 million years ago. And the beginning continued.
“This new evidence supports the hypothesis that hominins originated in Europe and spread into Africa with many other mammals between 9 and 7 million years ago, although it is not conclusively proven.”
“To achieve this, we need to find more fossils from Europe and Africa that are between 8 and 7 million years old to establish a definite relationship between the two groups.”
The study is published in Communication biology.
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