New fossil ‘rewrites history of human evolution’

Scientists may have to rethink the theory that Africa was the
geographical origin of our species after unearthing two fossils
with ape-like teeth in Greece and Bulgaria.

Researchers uncovered an ancient species of ape called
Graecopithecus freybergi or “El Graeco” which they believe to be
the oldest known traces of hominins (or pre-humans).

Sarah Knapton, science editor at the Daily Telegraph, says the
discovery “rewrites” the history of human evolution.

While experts believe our human lineage split from apes around
seven million years ago in Africa, the new fossil discovery
suggests Europe was in fact where mankind originated, she
writes.

The two specimens are a fossilised lower jaw – previously found
in Athens in 1944 – along with a tooth found in Bulgaria in
2009.

“No other fossil and living non-human primate is known with such
[molar] roots,” the researchers said in a statement, adding that
they believed ‘El Graeco’ was “the oldest known potential
pre-human”.

“He is several hundred thousand years older than the oldest
potential pre-human from Africa: 6–7-million-year-old
Sahelanthropus from Chad.”

David Begun, a professor of anthropology at the University of
Toronto and a co-author on the study, published in the journal PLOS
ONE, said: “This dating allows us to move the human-chimpanzee
split into the Mediterranean area. People need to stop just
thinking about Africa as the only possible location for this
divergence. It could well have happened in Europe.”

The new interpretation is important not simply because of
“geographical bragging rights” explains the Globe and Mail, but because it could help
“researchers arrive at a clearer picture of how and why hominins
developed a unique set of adaptations, including smaller canine
teeth and the ability to walk upright, that would later prove to be
key evolutionary steps on the road to humanity.”

Despite the findings, “there is no question that our species,
Homo sapiens, originated in Africa between 100,000 and 200,000
years ago and subsequently spread around the globe,” adds the
paper.

Others are also sceptical about the claim that the research
rewrites evolutionary history.

Nope, this research paper doesn’t prove what
you claim it proves, @telegraph
“science” team https://t.co/L4aJ5h8RxC

— Alok Jha (@alokjha) May 22, 2017

Kieran McNulty, an anthropologist at the University of
Minnesota, says the work on the Greek fossil is “impressive” but it
cannot definitively be shown to have originated from a hominin
because “so little is known about the deep past of ape species that
were not part of the human line”.

“It’s really difficult to interpret what those earliest common
ancestors would have looked like, because all we can see is the end
product of millions of years of evolutions in chimps and gorillas,”
he says.

McNulty added that the “weight of evidence” still favours a
hominin origin in Africa.

Retired anthropologist and author Dr Peter Andrews agrees. He
told the Daily Telegraph: “It is possible that the human
lineage originated in Europe, but very substantial fossil evidence
places the origin in Africa, including several partial skeletons
and skulls.”

“I would be hesitant about using a single character from an
isolated fossil to set against the evidence from Africa.”