Reposted by Erik Seiffert
A newly discovered fossil ape suggests the closest ancestors to modern apes may have emerged in northern Africa, outside the traditionally studied regions of East Africa.
Learn more in Science: scim.ag/4uSvmLJ
![The map highlights Wadi Moghra, Egypt (star), which is the discovery site of Masripithecus—the first definitive North African ape—alongside key Miocene hominoid localities (see table S1) across Afro-Arabia and Eurasia. Arrows indicate inferred dispersal routes based on the phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses presented here. The inset phylogeny places Masripithecus as the closest sampled sister taxon of crown Hominoidea. At lower left, a life reconstruction of Masripithecus based on the Masripithecus mandible combined with the facial morphology of the middle Miocene hominoid Pierolapithecus. [Illustration: M. Antón]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vqgovau5gkirnk3ss5qwjdmz/bafkreihxbwkdx6trsi6zmbfgfenpb2cubhkvjvgfnlzc7mwpv3qd7eg43a)
Erik Seiffert
@erikseiffert.bsky.social
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Evolutionary morphology of mammals • Professor, Integrative Anatomical Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
