An 8.7 million-year-old ape skull suggests that human and ape ancestors may have evolved in Europe, not Africa

A case of Eurocentrism? 😊 New fossils, new theories! Wow, so the first hominins go back about 9 million years.

"An ape skull found in Turkey may challenge the belief that human and ape ancestors came from Africa.

The discovery suggests that hominins may have first evolved in Europe.

Not all scientists are convinced by the theory, however. ...

Meanwhile early hominins, which include humans, the African apes, and their fossil ancestors, are not seen in Africa until around seven million years ago. ...
"Our findings further suggest that hominins not only evolved in western and central Europe but spent over five million years evolving there and spreading to the eastern Mediterranean before eventually dispersing into Africa, probably as a consequence of changing environments and diminishing forests," said Professor David Begun, a paleoanthropologist from the University of Toronto and co-senior author of the study ..."

From the abstract:

"Fossil apes from the eastern Mediterranean are central to the debate on African ape and human (hominine) origins. Current research places them either as hominines, as hominins (humans and our fossil relatives) or as stem hominids, no more closely related to hominines than to pongines (orangutans and their fossil relatives). Here we show, based on our analysis of a newly identified genus, Anadoluvius, from the 8.7 Ma site of Çorakyerler in central Anatolia, that Mediterranean fossil apes are diverse, and are part of the first known radiation of early members of the hominines. The members of this radiation are currently only identified in Europe and Anatolia; generally accepted hominins are only found in Africa from the late Miocene until the Pleistocene. Hominines may have originated in Eurasia during the late Miocene, or they may have dispersed into Eurasia from an unknown African ancestor. The diversity of hominines in Eurasia suggests an in situ origin but does not exclude a dispersal hypothesis."

Ancient Ape Skull Suggests Human Origins May Lie in Europe, Not Africa

Human and ape ancestors arose in Europe, not in Africa, controversial study claims

A new ape from Türkiye and the radiation of late Miocene hominines (open access)

The skull. Sevim-Erol, A., Begun, D.R., Sözer, Ç.S. et al.

Fig. 2: Cross sectional anatomy of the palate in Anadoluvius and other hominids (not to scale).