https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/999392
NEWS RELEASE 23-AUG-2023

A new fossil ape from an 8.7-million-year-old site
in Türkiye is challenging long-accepted ideas of
human origins and adding weight to the theory that
the ancestors of African apes and humans evolved
in Europe before migrating to Africa between nine
and seven million years ago.

Analysis of a newly identified ape named Anadoluvius
turkae recovered from the Çorakyerler fossil locality
near Çankırı with the support of the Ministry of
Culture and Tourism in Türkiye, shows Mediterranean
fossil apes are diverse and are part of the first
known radiation of early hominines – the group that
includes African apes (chimpanzees, bonobos and
gorillas), humans and their fossil ancestors.
...
“Our findings further suggest that hominines 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 Begun,
professor in the Department of Anthropology in the
Faculty of Arts & Science at U of T. “The members of
this radiation to which Anadoluvius belongs are
currently only identified in Europe and Anatolia.”

The conclusion is based on analysis of a significantly
well-preserved partial cranium uncovered at the site in
2015, which includes most of the facial structure and
the front part of the brain case.
...
The researchers say Anadoluvius was about the size of
a large male chimpanzee (50-60 kg) – very large for a
chimp and close to the average size of a female gorilla
(75-80 kg) – lived in a dry forest setting, and probably
spent a great deal of time on the ground.

“We have no limb bones but judging from its jaws and
teeth, the animals found alongside it, and the
geological indicators of the environment, Anadoluvius
probably lived in relatively open conditions, unlike
the forest settings of living great apes,” said Sevim
Erol. “More like what we think the environments of
early humans in Africa were like. The powerful jaws
and large, thickly enameled teeth suggest a diet
including hard or tough food items from terrestrial
sources such as roots and rhizomes.”

The animals that lived with Anadoluvius are those
commonly associated with African grasslands and dry
forests today, such as giraffes, wart hogs, rhinos,
diverse antelopes, zebras, elephants, porcupines,
hyaenas and lion-like carnivores. Research shows
that the ecological community appears to have
dispersed into Africa from the eastern Mediterranean
sometime after about eight million years ago.

“The founding of the modern African open country
fauna from the eastern Mediterranean has long been
known and now we can add to the list of entrants the
ancestors of the African apes and humans,” said
Sevim Erol.

The findings establish Anadoluvius turkae as a branch
of the part of the evolutionary tree that gave rise to
chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and humans. Although
African apes today are only known from Africa, as are
the earliest known humans, the study’s authors – which
also include colleagues at Ege University and Pamukkale
University in Türkiye and the Naturalis Biodiversity
Center in The Netherlands – conclude that the ancestors
of both came from Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.
...




https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-05210-5.pdf

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.

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