‘Humans, apes split in Europe’
Fossils cast doubt on human lineage Africa origin
MIAMI, May 23, (Agencies): Researchers have long believed that humans split from apes some five 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 millionyear-old pre-human remains found in caves in Greece and Bulgaria.
Researchers from France, Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Canada and Australia 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 co-author Jochen Fuss, a researcher at the University of Tubingen.
The findings also showed Graecopithecus is far older than the oldest
She was speaking at the annual informal “Petersberg Climate Dialogue” talks hosted by Germany, with some 30 nations taking part.
At the talks in Berlin, Germany’s Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks and Chinese Special Climate Envoy Xie Zhenhua jointly urged the United States to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement. (AFP)
‘Healthy mice’ produced:
After nine months in space, mouse sperm has yielded healthy mice, Japanese scientists reported known potential pre-human from Africa — Sahelanthropus from Chad, which is six or seven 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.
Evolution
Environmental changes may have helped drive the evolution of pre-human species, separate from apes, said co-author Madelaine Bohme, a professor of human evolution at the University of Tubingen.
“The incipient formation of a desert in North Africa more than seven million years ago and the spread of savannahs in Southern Europe may have played a central role in the splitting of the human and chimpanzee lineages,” said Bohme.
The two fossils were found in sediment that contained red-colored silts “and could be classified as desert dust,” said the report.
“These data document for the first time a spreading Sahara 7.2 million years ago, whose desert storms transported red, salty dusts to the north
Monday.
The freeze-dried sperm samples were launched in 2013 to the International Space Station and returned to Earth in 2014. The intense radiation of space caused slight DNA damage to the sperm. Yet, after in vitro fertilization on the ground, healthy offspring resulted. The baby mice grew into adults with normal fertility of their own.
The researchers — led by Sayaka Wakayama of the University of Yamanashi — said it’s a step toward reproducing other mammals, even humans, using spacepreserved sperm. They envision missions coast of the Mediterranean Sea in its then form,” it said.
Severe droughts and wildfires may have forced apes to seek out new food sources, and begin walking upright more often.
The scientific consensus long has been that hominins originated in Africa. Considering the Graecopithecus fossils hail from the Balkans, the eastern Mediterranean may have given rise to the human lineage, the researchers said.
The findings in no way call into question that our species, Homo sapiens, first appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago and later migrated to other parts of the world, the researchers said.
“Our species evolved in Africa. Our lineage may not have,” said paleoanthropologist Madelaine Bhme of Germanys University of Tübingen, adding that the findings “may change radically our understanding of early human/hominin origin.”
Graecopithecus is a mysterious species because its fossils are so sparse. It was roughly the size of a female chimp and dwelled in a relatively dry mixed woodland-grassland environment, similar to today’s African savanna, alongside antelopes, giraffes, rhinos, elephants, hyenas and warthogs.
The findings were published in the journal Plos One.
lasting several years or multiple generations, during which assisted reproductive technology might be used for domestic animals and people, too. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Previous developmental studies in space have involved, among other things, fish and amphibians. Mammals are more difficult to maintain and handle in space, and so testing, by comparison, has been limited. More extensive testing on sperm preservation is needed in space, according to the researchers.
Besides looking ahead to long-term space crews and societies, the researchers see other reasons for saving sperm in space, including in the event of disasters on Earth. The moon would be ideal for underground sperm storage, they noted, in particular lunar lava tubes because of “their very low temperatures, protection from space radiation by thick bedrock layers, and complete isolation from any disasters on Earth.” (AP)
Tut’s bed, chariot to be moved:
The chariot of king Tutankhamun will roll through the Egyptian capital’s streets on Tuesday, only on the back of a truck as curators transport it to its new home near the Giza Pyramids.
The wooden chariot will be joined by one of the boy-king’s three funerary beds that were on display in the Cairo museum and are being relocated to the Grand Egyptian Museum near the pyramids.
The gilded bed features posts made of carved lion heads, representing Sekhmet, the goddess of war and healing.
But it may take some time for the priceless relics to be viewed again by the public. (AFP)