New Discovery on the Origin of Humanity

[VonHellsing]

"Europe was the birthplace of mankind, not Africa, scientists find"

"The discovery of the creature, named Graecopithecus freybergi, and nicknameded ‘El Graeco' by scientists, proves our ancestors were already starting to evolve in Europe 200,000 years before the earliest African hominid."

"An international team of researchers say the findings entirely change the beginning of human history and place the last common ancestor of both chimpanzees and humans - the so-called Missing Link - in the Mediterranean region."

What odd, ever-changing times we live in. If these fossils are indeed what they appear to be, they call into question our general beliefs that our earliest ancestors originated in modern-day Kenya and Ethiopia, and instead place them somewhere in the Balkans and East Mediterranean. Any particular thoughts and opinions on this recent discovery?

[Oniya]

I'm trying to remember how the continents were squished around at that point in geological history.

[midnightblack]

I'm trying to remember how the continents were squished around at that point in geological history.

At least in the time-frame of the standard theories regarding human migration, the continents should be set very close to their present-day location. Continental drift is pretty slow. It takes millions of years for noticeable changes to occur.

[VonHellsing]

I'm trying to remember how the continents were squished around at that point in geological history.

The article explains it as; "During the period the Mediterranean Sea went through frequent periods of drying up completely, forming a land bridge between Europe and Africa and allowing apes and early hominids to pass between the continents."

So like midnightblack mentioned, the continents were pretty much where they are now, it's the sea levels that explain these possible migration patterns.

[Inkidu]

Mmm... kind of a stretch. I think our proto-hominid ancestors got around a lot more than people think, given the various land bridges and shifting climes.

[clonkertink]

I'm also a little leery of this. This is just one skeleton, meanwhile most of our fossil record for human ancestry is concentrated in Africa. So while this skeleton may be older, I wouldn't rule out that there may still be earlier ancestors in the African fossil record. This new fossil may just have been an early migration that died off before it could gain much traction.

I'm also a little leery of tracing the origins of humanity back to Europe. I mean, if more of these fossils start cropping up I'd be happy to revisit that opinion, but until then I'm not too keen to stroke the ego of Eurocentrism.

[VonHellsing]

I'm also a little leery of this. This is just one skeleton, meanwhile most of our fossil record for human ancestry is concentrated in Africa. So while this skeleton may be older, I wouldn't rule out that there may still be earlier ancestors in the African fossil record. This new fossil may just have been an early migration that died off before it could gain much traction.

I'm also a little leery of tracing the origins of humanity back to Europe. I mean, if more of these fossils start cropping up I'd be happy to revisit that opinion, but until then I'm not too keen to stroke the ego of Eurocentrism.

Mmm... kind of a stretch. I think our proto-hominid ancestors got around a lot more than people think, given the various land bridges and shifting climes.

I can agree with that. It's still too early to outright say that humanity's earliest ancestors were in Europe instead of Africa, considering the disproportionate amount of evidence we have so far. But at the same time we can't right this off as an anomaly or some small-time relative that died off quickly without making an impact. For all we know so far this is an entirely new branch of proto-hominids we didn't know about, rather than a "missing link" that the article claimed.

Even so, the fossils discovered were in Bulgaria and Greece. Even if this species was around for a short time and/or had a very small population compared to other proto-hominids, they still covered a pretty large area. Not to mention it's simply fascinating to know that a pre-hominid species made it that far north. They could've maybe even have made it into central or eastern Europe, but that's admittedly very wishful thinking.

I hope more fossils pop up soon, now that the figurative hornet's nest has been kicked. I mean, paleontologists and anthropologists don't go looking for proto-hominids in the Balkans, so hopefully there's more evidence just waiting to be discovered. I kinda hope they'll push the search into Anatolia and further north into Europe to find as much as possible.

What I'm worried about is that possible areas where fossils could be are now underwater considering how much sea levels have changed, plus thousands of years of human inhabitants and farming could have easily displaced or destroyed potential discoveries.

[RedRose]

That's so interesting!
Maybe it happened in several places...