23 May 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Africa May not be Where the First Pre-Human First Appeared

According to one opinion: About 2 million years ago, our first ancestors moved north from their hometown and left Africa.

The ergaster (or Homo erectus) may be the first human to leave Africa. Fossil remains indicate that this species has extended its range to southern Eurasia before 1.75 million years ago. Their descendants, the Asian Homo erectus, later spread eastward and were established in Southeast Asia at least 1.6 million years ago.

However, another theory suggests that anthroposomes may have migrated out of Africa before the first Homo erectus in Asia before the evolution of Homo erectus about 2 million years ago. These human-derived proteins may be Augustine, or more likely an unknown race, and their appearance is similar to that of apes. In this theory, the population found in Dmanisi represents the missing link in the evolution of Homo erectus/ergaster. Perhaps the evolution of the apes also occurred outside of Africa, and there is a considerable flow of genes between Africans and Eurasians. In recent years, due to DNA research, this theory has gained more support.

According to a new research result, researchers found that there is evidence that the ancestral connection between gorillas and humans occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean, not Africa, and according to research, the first pre-human humans (ie, humans) entered the Balkan region of northern Greece. Published in the scientific journals of “Science PLOS One” and “Science Daily”.

Until the time scientists made the discovery in 2017, scientists assumed that lineages diverged five to seven million years ago and that the first pre-humans had developed in Africa.

However, an international research team from Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Canada, France, and Australia, headed by Professor Madelaine Bohme from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tubingen and Professor Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, believe that human history began a few centuries earlier — and in the general area of the Balkans.

Graecopithecus jawbone,
Graecopithecus jawbone found near Athens during WWII. Photo: Plos One

New theories

Publishing their results in two articles in the scientific journal PLoS ONE in May 2017, the researchers explained that the two only known specimens of the fossilized hominid Graecopithecus Freyberg include the lower jaw found in Greece and the upper premolar from Bulgaria.

Previously, it was thought that the ape had been extinct for three million years before that, which made it the youngest fossil ape-like ever recorded in Europe.

Using state-of-the-art computed tomography, scientists visualized the internal structures of the fossils and showed that premolars’ roots were widely fused, and scientists studying the two Graecopithecus Freyberg fossils concluded that they actually belonged to them. to the pre-humans.

“While great apes typically have two or three separate and diverging roots, the roots of Graecopithecus converge and are partially fused — a feature that is characteristic of modern humans, early humans, and several pre-humans including Ardipithecus and Australopithecus,” said Bohme.

“This condition is so far only known to occur regularly in hominins – pre-humans and humans,” Spassov says. “It is extremely rare in recent chimps.”

The lower jaw, which scientists have dubbed “The Graeco,” has additional dental root characteristics, suggesting that the species Graecopithecus Freyberg could belong to prehumans or hominids. In addition, the researchers also found that it featured relatively small canines, which does not yet exist. another hominid trait.

The sedimentary layers of the Graecopithecus fossil sites in Greece and Bulgaria show that the ages of the two fossils are almost synchronized,  the 7.24 years and 7.175 million years before the present.

“It is at the beginning of the Messinian, an age that ends with the complete desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea,” Bohme explained.

Professor David Begun, the University of Toronto paleoanthropologist and co-author of the study added, “This dating allows us to move the human-chimpanzee split into the Mediterranean area.”

For the full article: Plos One

Related Articles

Archaeologists found a medieval skeleton with a prosthetic hand in Freising, Germany

28 October 2023

28 October 2023

Archaeologists in the city of Freising in Bavaria, Germany, unearthed containing a skeleton with a prosthetic hand. The metal part...

Archaeologists Unearth Cisterns at Izmir’s Ancient “City of Mother Goddess”

2 June 2021

2 June 2021

In the ancient city of Metropolis, in western Turkey, in the province of Izmir, something that played an important role...

Excavations show the Temple of Poseidon at Samikon is more Monumental than Previously Assumed -New Discoveries

3 November 2024

3 November 2024

New excavations by archaeologists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Greek Ministry of Culture in Kleidi-Samikon in the...

Academics Uncover Ancient Roman Physicians Galen’s Pharmacy Legacy in İzmir

27 February 2024

27 February 2024

As a part of research on medicinal plants in Bergama, İzmir’s historic district where Galen (129 AD -200 AD) once...

Statue Head of Goddess Tyche Discovered in Bulgaria

8 December 2024

8 December 2024

A remarkably crafted head of a large statue of the Greek goddess Tyche was recently unearthed during the excavations of...

2,000-Year-Old Iron Age and Roman Treasures Found in Wales Could Point to an Unknown Roman Settlement

12 May 2023

12 May 2023

A metal detectorist found a pile of exceptionally preserved Roman and Iron Age objects buried 2,000 years ago in a...

148 Ancient Tombs Spanning 2,100 Years Unearthed in the Construction Area of the Zoo

18 August 2024

18 August 2024

An ancient burial site with 148 tombs,  spanning over 2,100 years, has been discovered on the construction site of the...

The 1,000-year-old surgical kit found in Sican tomb, Peru

28 March 2022

28 March 2022

A set of surgical tools indicating that the deceased was a surgeon was found in a funerary bundle found in...

Stone reliefs describing the Persian-Greek wars were found in the ancient city of Daskyleion in northwestern Turkey

16 August 2021

16 August 2021

A relief depicting a fifth-century BC battle between the Greeks and Persians was discovered in the ancient city of Dascylium...

An ancient necropolis and coins discovered in Kastel Fortress, a national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina

11 November 2024

11 November 2024

During excavations at Kastel Fortress, the national monument of Bosnia and Herzegovina, students and professors of Archaeology and History found...

Ancient Yayoi Period Settlement Discovered on Tokyo Condo Development Site

10 December 2023

10 December 2023

Excavations at the former site of the British Embassy in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward have uncovered the remains of a Yayoi...

Archaeologists find evidence of how Iron Age Britons adapted to the Roman conquest in Winterborne Kingston

29 June 2024

29 June 2024

Archaeologists from Bournemouth University (BU) have discovered human remains and artifacts which give new insight into how early Britons adapted...

A Roman copper-alloy tiny tortoise figurine found in Suffolk

3 December 2023

3 December 2023

In July last year, a small Roman copper alloy tortoise or turtle figurine was discovered by metal detectors near the...

A rare 3,300-year-old bronze helmet reaching the present from the Hittite Empire era

17 July 2022

17 July 2022

The 3,300-year-old bronze helmet, which was unearthed during the 2002 excavations in Şapinuva, one of the important cult centers of...

Astonishing Find in the Czech Republic: Hikers Discover a 3.7 Kilogram Serbian/Bosnian Gold Treasure

29 April 2025

29 April 2025

A leisurely hike on the slopes of Zvičina Hill in the Czech Republic turned into an extraordinary discovery for two...