The fossilized remains of the Miocene-period ape species Anadoluvius turkae have been unearthed at the paleotological site of Çorakyerler in central Anatolia, Türkiye.
The origin of the hominines (African apes and humans) is among the most hotly debated topics in paleoanthropology.
The traditional view, ever since Charles Darwin, holds that hominines and hominins (humans and fossil relatives) originate in Africa, where the earliest hominins are found and where all living non-human hominines live.
More recently a European origin has been proposed, based on the analysis of Late Miocene apes from Europe and Central Anatolia.
Anadoluvius turkae attests to a lengthy history of hominines in Europe, with multiple species in the eastern Mediterranean known for at least 2.3 million years.
“Our findings further suggest that hominines not only evolved in western and central Europe but spent over 5 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 Professor David Begun, a paleontologist at the University of Toronto.
“The members of this radiation to which Anadoluvius turkae belongs are currently only identified in Europe and Anatolia.”
The well-preserved partial skull of Anadoluvius turkae — which includes most of the facial structure and the front part of the brain case — was uncovered at the site of Çorakyerler in central Anatolia in 2015.
“The completeness of the fossil allowed us to do a broader and more detailed analysis using many characters and attributes that are coded into a program designed to calculate evolutionary relationships,” Professor Begun said.
“The face is mostly complete, after applying mirror imaging. The new part is the forehead, with bone preserved to about the crown of the cranium. Previously described fossils do not have this much of the brain case.”
Anadoluvius turkae was…
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