Scientists Find 7.2-million-year-old Pre-human Remains in the Balkans
23rd May 2017
The common lineage of great apes and humans split several hundred thousand years earlier than hitherto assumed, according to an international research team headed by Professor Madelaine Böhme from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen and Professor Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The researchers investigated two fossils of Graecopithecus freybergi with state-of-the-art methods and came to the conclusion that they belong to pre-humans. Their findings, published today in two papers in the journal PLOS ONE, further indicate that the split of the human lineage occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean and not – as customarily assumed – in Africa.
Present-day chimpanzees are humans’ nearest living relatives. Where the last chimp-human common ancestor lived is a central and highly debated issue in palaeoanthropology. Researchers have assumed up to now that the lineages diverged five to seven million years ago and that the first pre-humans developed in Africa. According to the 1994 theory of French palaeoanthropologist Yves Coppens, climate change in Eastern Africa could have played a crucial role. The two studies of the research team from Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Canada, France and Australia now outline a new scenario for the beginning of human history.
May 23rd, 2017 at 10:13
The 5-7 million date for divergence was first proposed by Wilson and Sarich in 1967. They based on immunological and genetic variance data. At the time there were no hominid fossils known outside of East Africa; since that was the only place hominid fossils were found during the proper time-frame, it was logically concluded that we must have diverged there.
This new find and study, if verified, adds a new and intriguing element to the emerging but still very sketchy picture of homo sapiens’ appearance.
Unless of course you’re Mike Pence, in which case it’s irrelevant. As is most of genetic and evolutionary science. Which research he’ll no doubt be de-funding at the first opportunity; why research something to which the definitive answer is already revealed?
May 23rd, 2017 at 13:33
You have no knowledge of what Mike Pence thinks; just the typical proglodyte name-calling. Boring.
May 23rd, 2017 at 18:19
Have you read him? I have. Talk about boring…