Newly discovered fossil indicates Europe, not Africa, was birthplace of mankind

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

Europe was the birthplace of mankind, not Africa, scientists find

The history of human evolution has been rewritten after scientists discovered that Europe was the birthplace of mankind, not Africa.


Currently, most experts believe that our human lineage split from apes around seven million years ago in central Africa, where hominids remained for the next five million years before venturing further afield.


But two fossils of an ape-like creature which had human-like teeth have been found in Bulgaria and Greece, dating to 7.2 million years ago.

The discovery of the creature, named Graecopithecus freybergi, and nicknameded ‘El Graeco' by scientists, proves our ancestors were already starting to evolve in Europe 200,000 years before the earliest African hominid.


An international team of researchers say the findings entirely change the beginning of human history and place the last common ancestor of both chimpanzees and humans - the so-called Missing Link - in the Mediterranean region.


At that time climate change had turned Eastern Europe into an open savannah which forced apes to find new food sources, sparking a shift towards bipedalism, the researchers believe.


“This study changes the ideas related to the knowledge about the time and the place of the first steps of the humankind,” said Professor Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.


“Graecopithecus is not an ape. He is a member of the tribe of hominins and the direct ancestor of homo.


“The food of the Graecopithecus was related to the rather dry and hard savannah vegetation, unlike that of the recent great apes which are living in forests. Therefore, like humans, he has wide molars and thick enamel...

Prior to law school, I took some anthropology classes as electives, and the "out of Africa" theory was very prominent in anthropology at the time. It appears that theory is disproved for now.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

Got two threads on this already. As for me, I still accept the Biblical account. True Man began in Mesopotamia.

 

[Weatherman2020]

They found a monkey bone.

 

[Old Rocks]

More than likely, a case of parrallel evolution. Two fossils hardly negate the many homonid fossils found in Africa.

 

[norwegen]

More than likely, a case of parrallel evolution. Two fossils hardly negate the many homonid fossils found in Africa.

No one's disputing the fossils found in Africa. Did you note in the OP the 200,000-year headstart that the European hominids had?

 

[task0778]

Europe was the birthplace of mankind, not Africa, scientists find

The history of human evolution has been rewritten after scientists discovered that Europe was the birthplace of mankind, not Africa.


Currently, most experts believe that our human lineage split from apes around seven million years ago in central Africa, where hominids remained for the next five million years before venturing further afield.


But two fossils of an ape-like creature which had human-like teeth have been found in Bulgaria and Greece, dating to 7.2 million years ago.

The discovery of the creature, named Graecopithecus freybergi, and nicknameded ‘El Graeco' by scientists, proves our ancestors were already starting to evolve in Europe 200,000 years before the earliest African hominid.


An international team of researchers say the findings entirely change the beginning of human history and place the last common ancestor of both chimpanzees and humans - the so-called Missing Link - in the Mediterranean region.


At that time climate change had turned Eastern Europe into an open savannah which forced apes to find new food sources, sparking a shift towards bipedalism, the researchers believe.


“This study changes the ideas related to the knowledge about the time and the place of the first steps of the humankind,” said Professor Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.


“Graecopithecus is not an ape. He is a member of the tribe of hominins and the direct ancestor of homo.


“The food of the Graecopithecus was related to the rather dry and hard savannah vegetation, unlike that of the recent great apes which are living in forests. Therefore, like humans, he has wide molars and thick enamel...

Prior to law school, I took some anthropology classes as electives, and the "out of Africa" theory was very prominent in anthropology at the time. It appears that theory is disproved for now.

Hardly disproved, just hypothesized. From what I gather it's not like they have a lot of evidence there to go on. Not impossible either, though.