Discovery of 8.7m-year-old ape rewrites story of humanity

[canetoad]

Africa has always been considered the cradle of mankind, with humans evolving from apes on the continent, before spreading to the rest of the world.

But an intriguing find is challenging the long-standing assumption.

The partial skull of a new ancient ape has been discovered in Turkey, and it appears to predate African apes, suggesting that human origins may actually lie in Europe.

The fossil of Anadoluvius turkae was discovered in Cankiri, a city around 86 miles northeast of Ankara, and is thought to date from around 8.7 million years ago.

https://archive.md/MzcZJ#selection-2635.11-2635.12



A new face and partial brain case of Anadoluvius turkae, a fossil hominine – the group that includes African apes and humans – from the Çorakyerler fossil site located in Central Anatolia, Turkey

[Fresh Water Falling]

1. Mitch McConnell?

Sorry, couldn't resist!

[canetoad]

2. Wrong fossil

[Ligyron]

3. Bwahahaha!

[malaise]

10. Bwaaaaaaaaah😀😀😀😀😀

[Duppers]

4. K & R

Thank you for posting this.

It has been popping up in my feed but I've neglected to read it until now.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. The Telegraph is overhyping this - it's the history of African apes, not "humanity"

"Africa has always been considered the cradle of mankind, with humans evolving from apes on the continent, before spreading to the rest of the world.

But an intriguing find is challenging the long-standing assumption."

No, it's not challenging that at all. Here's the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-023-05210-5

This is about the "hominines", which is gorillas, chimps, and humans, or the "African apes". These diverged from our common ancestors with orangutans (from Asia, of course) at some time and place (and the other apes, gibbons, which split earlier still, are also from Asia). Fossil apes from around this time have been found in Europe and Anatolia before, but not with any features that link specifically to the African apes that appeared a bit later. Now, this find has hominine features, and, being the earliest hominine found, they say the simplest explanation is that it, or close relatives, evolved in Anatolia, and then spread south to Africa (rather than a rather generally-featured ape moving to Africa, and evolving the hominine features there, and then some moving back to Anatolia).

The evolution into the separate gorilla, and chimp/human groups, and then the split between chimps and humans, are still placed in Africa.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Thanks for clarification.

Need to coin a new term/concept: "dejournalismising"

[honest.abe]

8. I was wondering about this as I read the article.

Thanks for clarifying. Clickbait headlines are so common now.

[ariadne0614]

9. If The Telegraph is overhyping this, then the white supremacists can't be far behind.

I can already hear their chest-thumping, feces-flinging, and screeches in the distance. They won’t bother to read the actual science, much less attempt to comprehend its implications.

[Sky Jewels]

11. That would mean them acknowledging that evolution is real.

A lot of those dipshits probably think the Adam and Eve mythology is true.

[ariadne0614]

12. You could be right, but cognitive dissonance doesn't usually slow them down. n/t

[Aristus]

14. Yeah. First thing I noticed.

Humans didn't evolve from apes. Apes and humans are believed to have evolved divergently from a common ancestor. There's a difference.

[2naSalit]

6. K&R

[Hekate]

13. Very interesting! KnR

[Faux pas]

15. Kickin' & Rec'n