Graecopithecus

Graecopithecus
Temporal range: Late Miocene
Holotype jaw and premolar
Holotype jaw and premolar
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Family: Hominidae
Genus: †Graecopithecus
von Koenigswald, 1972
Species:
†G. freybergi
Binomial name
†Graecopithecus freybergi
von Koenigswald, 1972[1]

Graecopithecus is an extinct genus of hominid that lived in southeast Europe during the late Miocene around 7.2 million years ago. Originally identified by a single lower jaw bone bearing teeth found in Pyrgos Vasilissis, Athens, Greece, in 1944,[1] other teeth were discovered from Azmaka quarry in Bulgaria in 2012.[2] With only little and badly preserved materials to reveal its nature, it is considered as "the most poorly known European Miocene hominoids."[3] The creature was popularly nicknamed 'El Graeco' (word play on the Greek-Spanish painter El Greco) by scientists.[4]

In 2017, an international team of palaeontologists led by Madelaine Böhme of the Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Germany, published a controversial analysis of the teeth and age of the specimens, and came to the conclusion that it could be the oldest hominin, meaning that it could be the oldest direct ancestors of humans after splitting from that of the chimpanzees.[5] Their simultaneous study also claimed that contrary to the generally accepted evidence of the African origin of the hominin lineage, the ancestors of humans originated from the main ape ancestry in the Mediterranean region (before migrating into Africa where they evolved into the ancestors of Homo species).[6][4] They named the origin of human theory as the "North Side Story."[7]

These claims have been disputed by other scientists.[8] Rick Potts and Bernard Wood argued that the evidence is too flimsy to even say it is a hominin.[7] Tim D. White commented that the claim was only to support a biased argument that Africa is not the birthplace of humans; while Sergio Almécija stated that single characters such as teeth cannot tell the claimed evolutionary details.[8]

  1. ^ a b von Koenigswald, G.H.R (1972). "Ein Unterkiefer eines fossilen Hominoiden aus dem Unterpliozän Griechenlands". Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen Series B. 75 (5): 385–394.
  2. ^ Spassov, N.; Geraads, D.; Hristova, L.; Markov, G. N.; Merceron, G.; Tzankov, T.; Stoyanov, K.; Böhme, M.; Dimitrova, A. (2012). "A hominid tooth from Bulgaria: the last pre-human hominid of continental Europe". Journal of Human Evolution. 62 (1): 138–145. Bibcode:2012JHumE..62..138S. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.10.008. PMID 22153571.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Knapton, Sarah (22 May 2017). "Europe was the birthplace of mankind, not Africa, scientists find". The Telegraph. Retrieved 20 February 2019 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  5. ^ Fuss, Jochen; Spassov, Nikolai; Begun, David R.; Böhme, Madelaine (2017). "Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe". PLOS ONE. 12 (5): e0177127. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1277127F. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0177127. PMC 5439669. PMID 28531170.
  6. ^ Böhme, Madelaine; Spassov, Nikolai; Ebner, Martin; Geraads, Denis; Hristova, Latinka; Kirscher, Uwe; Kötter, Sabine; Linnemann, Ulf; Prieto, Jérôme; Roussiakis, Socrates; Theodorou, George (2017). "Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe". PLOS ONE. 12 (5): e0177347. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1277347B. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0177347. PMC 5439672. PMID 28531204.
  7. ^ a b Daley, Jason (2017-05-23). "Controversial Study Claims Apes and Human Ancestors Split in Southern Europe". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2021-11-15.
  8. ^ a b Barras, Colin (2017-05-22). "Our common ancestor with chimps may be from Europe, not Africa". New Scientist. Retrieved 2017-05-24.