PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN APE FOSSIL DISCOVERED IN EGYPT

Researchers have identified a fossil ape species previously unknown to science from a site in northern Egypt, according to a study published in Science. The specimen, named Masripithecus moghraensis, was unearthed at the Wadi Moghra fossil site and lived approximately 17 to 18 million years ago during the Early Miocene period. Scientists from Mansoura University Vertebrate Palaeontology Centre and the University of Southern California conducted the research. Hesham Sallam, a palaeontologist at Mansoura University and senior author of the study, stated that the discovery addresses a significant gap in the fossil record of ape evolution.

The find marks the first definitive fossil ape recovered from North Africa, a region that had previously yielded only monkey remains from the Early Miocene. Younger ape fossils have been documented in Africa, Asia and Europe, but scientists have debated how these specimens relate to one another and where their geographic origins lie. The absence of North African ape fossils from this period led earlier researchers to conclude that early apes and their relatives inhabited regions farther south during the Early Miocene. Masripithecus moghraensis differed clearly from East African apes of approximately the same age, according to the researchers.

The discovery suggests that North Africa served as a crucial crossroads in the early evolution and dispersal of apes. The uneven nature of the fossil record may have distorted scientific understanding of the origins of crown Hominoidea, the group encompassing all living apes—from gibbons and orangutans to gorillas, chimpanzees and humans—and their last common ancestor. The research team spent five years searching for fossil evidence of this kind before the Wadi Moghra discovery.