Humans split from apes in Europe, not Africa: study

Researchers have long believed that humans split from apes some 5 million years ago in Africa, but a study Monday suggests it happened in Europe far earlier than that.

Just where the last common ancestor between chimps – our closest relatives – and humans existed is a matter of hot debate in the scientific community.

The new hypothesis about the origin of mankind is based on 7.2 million- year- old pre- human remains found in caves in Greece and Bulgaria.

Researchers from different countries analyzed the dental roots of two known specimens of the fossil hominid Graecopithecus freybergi.

Using a specialized X- ray known as computer tomography to scan a lower jaw from Greece and an upper premolar from Bulgaria, they found characteristics suggesting these ape like creatures – nicknamed “El Graeco” – were likely pre- humans, or hominids.

“We were surprised by our results, as pre- humans were previously known only from sub- Saharan Africa,” said coauthor Jochen Fuss, a researcher at the University of Tubingen in Germany.

The findings also showed Graecopithecus is far older than the oldest known potential prehuman from Africa – Sahelanthropus from Chad, which is 6 or 7 million years old.

The fossil in Greece was dated to 7.24 million years, while the Bulgarian one was 7.175 million years old, said the report in the journal PLOS ONE.

“This dating allows us to move the human- chimpanzee split into the Mediterranean area,” said co- author David Begun, a University of Toronto paleoanthropologist.