The
Graecopithecus freybergi, who lived 7.2 million years ago, is
known only from a lower jawbone, unearthed in 1944 in Greece,
and an isolated tooth, found in 2009 near the Bulgarian town of
Chirpan, where excavations have now restarted.
"It would be great to find a whole skeleton but a thigh would
also help us a lot," Professor Nikolai Spassov, head of
Bulgaria's National Museum of Natural History, told Reuters.
The scientific consensus long has been that humanity's ape-like
ancestors, known as hominins, originated in Africa. Until now,
the oldest-known hominin was Sahelanthropus, which lived 6-7
million years ago in Chad. [L1N1IO0IT]
But Spassov hopes new fossils will back up the theory that
hominins originated in the Eastern Mediterranean.
"They have most probably migrated to Africa due to climate
change," he said.
Surrounded by dangerous predators in a savannah-type
environment, life would have been hard for a Graecopithecus
freybergi. A male would have weighed around 40 kg and a female
around 30 kg, Spassov said.
Scientists in Greece are also expected to resume the search for
remains of the hominin, and excavation work will begin in
neighboring Macedonia in September.
(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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