Scientists find 7.2-million-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans https://phys.org/news/2017-05-scientists-million-year-old-pre-huma...

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. More info

Nanotechnology Physics Earth Astronomy & Space Technology Chemistry Biology Other Sciences

search
Home Other Sciences Archaeology & Fossils May 22, 2017

Scientists find 7.2-million-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans

May 22, 2017, University of Toronto

Featured Last comments Popular

The lower jaw of the 7.175 million year old Graecopithecus freybergi (El Graeco) from Pyrgos
Vassilissis, Greece (today in metropolitan Athens). Credit: Wolfgang Gerber, University of The moon is about to do something it
Tübingen hasn't done in more than 150 years
Jan 03, 2018 12

The common lineage of great apes and humans split several hundred
thousand years earlier than hitherto assumed, according to an international Study investigates impact of lions living
alongside giraffe populations Jan 03,
research team headed by Professor Madelaine Böhme from the Senckenberg
2018 3
Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of
Tübingen and Professor Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian Academy of
Alien megastructure not the cause of
Sciences. The researchers investigated two fossils of Graecopithecus
dimming of the 'most mysterious star in
freybergi with state-of-the-art methods and came to the conclusion that they the universe' Jan 03, 2018 10
belong to pre-humans. Their findings, published today in two papers in the
journal PLOS ONE, further indicate that the split of the human lineage
A nonaddictive opioid painkiller with no
occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean and not - as customarily assumed - in side effects Jan 05, 2018 17
Africa.

Present-day chimpanzees are humans'

Direct genetic evidence of founding
nearest living relatives. Where the last population reveals story of first Native
chimp-human common ancestor lived is Americans Jan 03, 2018 4
a central and highly debated issue in
palaeoanthropology. Researchers have more »
assumed up to now that the lineages
diverged five to seven million years ago
and that the first pre-humans developed
Phys.org
in Africa. According to the 1994 theory of
Top Help Science X AccountFrench palaeoanthropologist
Feature Stories Yves
Android app Follow
Connect
Coppens, climate change in Eastern
Home FAQ Sponsored Account Latest news iOS app
Africa could have played a crucial role.
Search About Newsletter Week's top
The two studies of the research team from Germany, Bulgaria, Amazon Kindle
Greece,
Canada,
Mobile version France and Australia
Contact RSS feedsnow outline Archive
a new scenario for the beginning Phys.org on facebook
of human history.
1.3M people are following Phys.org. Be the
Follow
first of your friends.
Dental roots give new evidence

© Phys.orgThe
2003team
- 2018,analyzed the two
Science X network known specimens of the fossil hominid Privacy Policy Terms of Use

1 of 6 1/6/18, 3:04 PM
Scientists find 7.2-million-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans https://phys.org/news/2017-05-scientists-million-year-old-pre-huma...

Graecopithecus freybergi: a lower jaw from Greece and an upper premolar

Email newsletter
from Bulgaria. Using computer tomography, they visualized the internal
structures of the fossils and demonstrated that the roots of premolars are
email Subscribe
widely fused.

"While great apes typically have two or three separate and diverging roots,
the roots of Graecopithecus converge and are partially fused - a feature that Relevant PhysicsForums posts
is characteristic of modern humans, early humans and several pre-humans
including Ardipithecus and Australopithecus", said Böhme.
Scientists want to drill into Earth's mantle. 9
hours ago

What light rays from fire on earth compared to

suns fire? 12 hours ago

Why southern Nevada desert and Nashville, TN

are not desert? Jan 05, 2018

Will solar output decrease Dec 29, 2017

Why aren't less massive objects also spherical like

planets and moons? Dec 28, 2017

Why doesn’t the water fall out of the Earth? Dec

23, 2017

More from Earth

A 7.24 million year old upper premolar of Graecopithecus from Azmaka, Bulgaria. Credit:
Wolfgang Gerber, University of Tübingen

The lower jaw, nicknamed 'El Graeco' by the scientists, has additional dental
root features, suggesting that the species Graecopithecus freybergi might
belong to the pre-human lineage. "We were surprised by our results, as pre-
humans were previously known only from sub-Saharan Africa," said Jochen
Fuss, a Tübingen PhD student who conducted this part of the study.

Furthermore, Graecopithecus is several hundred thousand years older than

the oldest potential pre-human from Africa, the six to seven million year old
Sahelanthropus from Chad. The research team dated the sedimentary
sequence of the Graecopithecus fossil sites in Greece and Bulgaria with
physical methods and got a nearly synchronous age for both fossils - 7.24
and 7.175 million years before present. "It is at the beginning of the
Messinian, an age that ends with the complete desiccation of the
Mediterranean Sea," Böhme said.

1 IQ Test: What is your IQ?

2 Polymers Thermal Analysis

Professor David Begun, a University of Toronto paleoanthropologist and co-
author of this study, added, "This dating allows us to move the human-
chimpanzee split into the Mediterranean area."

Environmental changes as the driving force for divergence

As with the out-of-East-Africa theory, the evolution of pre-humans may have

been driven by dramatic environmental changes. The team led by Böhme
demonstrated that the North African Sahara desert originated more than
seven million years ago. The team concluded this based on geological
analyses of the sediments in which the two fossils were found. Although
geographically distant from the Sahara, the red-colored silts are very fine-

2 of 6 1/6/18, 3:04 PM
Scientists find 7.2-million-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans https://phys.org/news/2017-05-scientists-million-year-old-pre-huma...

grained and could be classified as desert dust. An analysis of uranium,

thorium, and lead isotopes in individual dust particles yields an age between
0.6 and 3 billion years and infers an origin in Northern Africa.

An electron microscope image of a dust particle rounded by eolian transport. It originated in the
Sahara desert and was found in 7.2 million year old sediments in Greece. Credit: Ulf
Linnemann, Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of
Tübingen

Moreover, the dusty sediment has a high content of different salts. "These
data document for the first time a spreading Sahara 7.2 million years ago,
whose desert storms transported red, salty dusts to the north coast of the
Mediterranean Sea in its then form," the Tübingen researchers said. This
process is also observable today. However, the researchers' modelling shows
that, with up to 250 grams per square meter and year, the amount of dust in
the past considerably exceeds recent dust loadings in Southern Europe more
than tenfold, comparable to the situation in the present-day Sahel zone in
Africa.

Fire, grass, and water stress

The researchers further showed that, contemporary to the development of the

Sahara in North Africa, a savannah biome formed in Europe. Using a
combination of new methodologies, they studied microscopic fragments of
charcoal and plant silicate particles, called phytoliths. Many of the phytoliths
identified derive from grasses and particularly from those that use the
metabolic pathway of C4-photosynthesis, which is common in today's tropical
grasslands and savannahs. The global spread of C4-grasses began eight
million years ago on the Indian subcontinent - their presence in Europe was
previously unknown.

"The phytolith record provides evidence of severe droughts, and the charcoal
analysis indicates recurring vegetation fires," said Böhme. "In summary, we
reconstruct a savannah, which fits with the giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, and
rhinoceroses that were found together with Graecopithecus," Spassov added

"The incipient formation of a desert in North Africa more than seven million
years ago and the spread of savannahs in Southern Europe may have played
a central role in the splitting of the human and chimpanzee lineages," said
Böhme. She calls this hypothesis the North Side Story, recalling the thesis of
Yves Coppens, known as East Side Story.

The findings are described in two studies pubished in PLOS ONE titled

3 of 6 1/6/18, 3:04 PM
Scientists find 7.2-million-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans https://phys.org/news/2017-05-scientists-million-year-old-pre-huma...

"Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the late Miocene of

Europe" and "Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible
hominin Graecopithecus from Europe."

Explore further: The development of amphibians and reptiles through

twelve million years of geological history

More information: Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the

Late Miocene of Europe, PLOS ONE (2017). journals.plos.org/plosone/arti
… journal.pone.0177127

Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin

Graecopithecus from Europe, PLOS ONE (2017).
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti … journal.pone.0177347

Journal reference: PLoS ONE 4745 shares

Provided by: University of Toronto feedback to editors

Related Stories Recommended for you

The development of amphibians and 4000-year-old woodhenge discovered in

reptiles through twelve million years of Yorkshire might have been a sauna
geological history March 24, 2017 January 5, 2018

Together with an international team, Senckenberg scientist A team of researchers led by freelance archaeologist John
Professor Dr. Madelaine Böhme studied the development of Tibbles has found evidence suggesting that a woodhenge
the amphibian and reptile fauna in Western Siberia during the past twelve discovered in Yorkshire several months ago might have been
million years. In their study, ... used for sacrifices, or perhaps as a sauna. Tibbles ...

Gorilla fossil suggests split from Study of 385-million-year-old shark

humans as far back as 10 million years
ago February 11, 2016
(Phys.org)—An international team of researchers studying
fossils unearthed in Ethiopia's Chorora Formation in the Afar
rift has dated some gorilla teeth fossils to approximately 8 million years ago,
which the team suggests, ...
suggests humans and sharks shared
common ancestor 440 million years ago
January 4, 2018
A team of researchers with the University of Chicago,
University College Dublin and Cambridge University studying a 385-million-
year-old shark fossil has found evidence that suggests humans and sharks
shared a common ancestor ...

3 comments

4 of 6 1/6/18, 3:04 PM
Scientists find 7.2-million-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans https://phys.org/news/2017-05-scientists-million-year-old-pre-huma...

2.5 Adjust slider to filter visible comments by rank

Display comments: newest first

etherair 3 / 5 (2) May 23, 2017

Judging on past theories based on single pieces of evidence this could be true, or not.
Present lineage guesses are based on little more evidence than is had here. When the

whole picture finally gets filled in many of these quaint guesses will be amusing in hindsight.

BobSage not rated yet May 23, 2017

"An analysis of uranium, thorium, and lead isotopes in individual dust particles yields an age
between 0.6 and 3 billion years and infers an origin in Northern Africa"

The word is "implies", not "infers". Otherwise, nice article.

BubbaNicholson not rated yet May 29, 2017

BobSage: "Infer" is correct here. Analysis of three isotopes is sufficient to reduce the
probability of any other origin to zero.

Commenting is closed for this article.

Trending News Powered by Ideal Media

Boeing Unveils New Drone Which Will Peace Down Under: Man Breaks Up
"Change The Future Of Air" Brawling Kangaroos
Boeing’s IR team had been working around the clock for The 'roos started fighting and then it got serious
today’s unveiling of ...

Robot Who Once Promised To Destroy ‘Five More Minutes!’ Kitten Refuses To
Humanity Now "Loves" Humans Leave Bed
Sophia, the social humanoid robot who freaked people out “It’s called a cat nap for a reason, Sarah!”
after promising to ...

Woman Can Smell Parkinson's Disease, "Snake Eggs" Discovered In School

May Lead To Breakthrough Sand Pit Baffle Experts
Joy Milne was able to smell her husband's Parkinson's According to a snake expert, the eggs found in a school sand
disease before any ... pit on the ...

The 14 Habits Of Highly Miserable World's Rarest Large Wild Cat Caught
People On Video By Russian Driver
How to succeed at self-sabotage. Most of us claim we want The footage has helped scientists to obtain valuable data
to be happy, to ... about one of the ...

5 of 6 1/6/18, 3:04 PM
Scientists find 7.2-million-year-old pre-human remains in the Balkans https://phys.org/news/2017-05-scientists-million-year-old-pre-huma...

6 of 6 1/6/18, 3:04 PM