Humans ‘may originate from Mediterranean’

discovery: Scientists base claim on analysis of two fossils

The birthplace of the human race may be Mediterranean Europe and not Africa, a controversial new discovery suggests.

Scientists base the claim on an analysis of two very ancient fossils, a tooth and lower jawbone, unearthed in Bulgaria and Greece.

Evidence indicates that the ape-like creature they belonged to was the oldest pre-human known, dating back as far as 7.2 million years.

Graecopithecus freybergi is said to be several hundred thousand years older than the most ancient potential human ancestor discovered in Africa, Sahelanthropus, from Chad.

The implication is that humans split from their ape cousins not in Africa, as has been widely assumed, but Europe.

Phd student Jochen Fuss, a member of the international research team from Tubingen University in Germany, said: “We were surprised by our results, as pre-humans were previously known only from sub-Saharan Africa.”

For more than 40 years, the “cradle of humanity” has been firmly located in East Africa, where hundreds of fossils of humans and pre-humans were discovered in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Graecopithecus fossils, described in the journal Public Library of Science ONE, were found to have dental traits seen in modern humans, early humans and pre-humans, but not great apes.

CT (computer tomography) scans were used to visualise the internal structure of the tooth and jawbone.

Lead researcher Professor Madelaine Bohme, also from Tubingen University, said: “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 including Ardipithecus and Australopithecus.”

The lower jaw, nicknamed “El Graeco” by the scientists, had additional dental features suggesting a pre-human lineage.

Both the Greek and Bulgarian fossils were roughly 7.2 million years old, dating them to a time when the Mediterranean region was covered in Africa-like savannah grassland and home to giraffes, gazelles, and rhinos.

Co-author Professor David Begun, from Toronto University in Canada, said: “This dating allows us to move the human-chimpanzee split into the Mediterranean area.”

The creation of savannah conditions in Europe, confirmed by the discovery of grass-derived plant silicate particles called phytoliths, coincided with the emergence of the Sahara desert in north Africa.

Professor Bohme added: “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.”

The upper premolar fossil was found in Azmaka, Bulgaria, and the jawbone in Pyrgos Vassilissis, near Athens.

We were surprised by our results, as prehumans were previously known only from sub-Saharan Africa. JOCHEN FUSS