According to Sci-News, scientists have just unearthed the 8.7 million-year-old remains of Anadoluvius turkae, a newly identified species that is the common ancestor of humans and some other primates.

Notably, what was surprising was that the remains were revealed in Türkiye. This is in stark contrast to traditional theories that the human lineage split from the common chimpanzee family tree, evolving and then leaving its African homeland.

This discovery shows that the history of human ancestors is very complex. Anadoluvius turkae still has the appearance of an ape, but the fossil skull found has a structure that shows it had a larger brain than its previously discovered ancestors.

This type of creature is about the same size as a large male chimpanzee and lives in a harsh environment, spending more time on the ground than in trees.

Science has always believed that their ability to move flexibly comes from their legs and to feed and live on the ground only after millions of years.

“We don’t have limb bones but judging from the jaw and teeth, the animals found along it and the geological indicators of the environment, Anadoluvius turkae probably lived in relatively open conditions, unlike like the forest environment of great apes” – said Professor David Begun, paleoanthropologist from the University of Toronto (Canada).

Many studies also show that the Mediterranean ecological community includes species such as giraffes, antelopes, elephants, hyenas… and most recently, human ancestral lineages that dispersed into Africa from about 8 A.D. million years ago.