Egypt's 17-18 Million-Year-Old Ape Fossil Challenges East Africa Origins Theory
Updated
Updated · ScienceDaily · Jul 25
Egypt's 17-18 Million-Year-Old Ape Fossil Challenges East Africa Origins Theory
1 articles · Updated · ScienceDaily · Jul 25
Summary
A 17-18 million-year-old lower jaw from Wadi Moghra in northern Egypt gives the first definitive evidence of an Early Miocene ape in North Africa, researchers reported in Science.
Bayesian analyses combining fossil anatomy, DNA from living apes and fossil ages place Masripithecus moghraensis closer to living apes than any East African species of the same age.
The jaw's large canines and premolars, rounded molars and robust build suggest a mainly fruit-based but flexible diet suited to increasingly seasonal conditions in northern Africa and Arabia.
Those results point to North Africa and the Middle East as an evolutionary crossroads—and possible birthplace—for the lineage that later produced gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and humans.
The finding challenges the long-dominant East Africa origin model and suggests more fossils from North Africa and the Middle East could reshape the ape family tree further.
Could a single fragmented jawbone found in Egypt completely rewrite the long-held story of human and ape origins?
If early apes evolved in North Africa, what other missing evolutionary links remain buried under the sands of the Middle East?
How might microscopic structures hidden in ancient ape teeth reveal the exact diet that helped our ancestors survive climate change?
Egypt’s *Masripithecus moghraensis* Fossil Redraws Ape and Human Origins: Challenging the East African Paradigm with a 17-Million-Year-Old Discovery
Overview
The discovery of Masripithecus moghraensis by the Sallam Lab team in northern Egypt marks the first definitive fossil ape found in North Africa and challenges the long-held belief that modern apes and humans originated in East Africa. Advanced Bayesian analysis revealed this species is more closely related to living apes than any known Early Miocene species from East Africa, supporting the idea that modern apes may have originated in northern Afro-Arabia or the eastern Mediterranean. This find bridges a crucial gap between African and Eurasian fossil records, sparks debate among experts, and drives renewed fieldwork in the harsh, fossil-rich deserts of North Africa and the Middle East.