New clues about where humans originated

Specifically, a partial skull of the Anadoluvius Turkae ape was found in the city of Cankiri, northeastern Turkey and appears to date back 8.7 million years, Live Science reported. This discovery has challenged previous views that human origins originated in Africa.

Previous studies have shown that traces of early human species, including humans, African apes and their ancestors, appeared on the black continent about 7 million years ago.

This suggests that hominins may have first evolved in Europe before migrating to Africa, researchers say.

The skull was just found.

"Our findings further suggest that hominins not only evolved in western and central Europe, but also spent more than 5 million years there and spread to the eastern Mediterranean before dispersing into Africa. This may have been the result of environmental change and forest loss," said study co-author Professor David Begun of the University of Toronto, Canada, in The Telegraph.

“This new evidence supports the hypothesis that hominins originated in Europe and dispersed into Africa along with many other mammals between 9 and 7 million years ago, although it does not prove it definitively,” Professor Begun added.

According to this expert, to prove the new hypothesis, it is necessary to find more fossils from Europe and Africa from about 7 to 8 million years ago to try to find the connection between the two groups.

Meanwhile, other researchers say the findings do not challenge existing understandings of human origins.

Unexpected revelation from the world's oldest "cemetery" in Africa

"This is a long-standing debate about great apes and our origins," said Professor Chris Stringer, head of human evolution at the Natural History Museum in the UK.

"I don't think this discovery changes much from previous discussions, which concluded that current evidence suggests hominins originated in Africa from Miocene ape ancestors. These apes are unlike any living [present-day] creatures."

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