Conventional scientific wisdom based on fossil discoveries so far is that the human species evolved from an ancient ancestor we share with apes that lived in Africa.
But now a team of researchers in Turkey have identified a new specimen in the fossil record in the shape of a skull and bones dating back 8.7 million years.
The new fossil ape, Anadoluvius turkae, may challenge traditional views that early humans only evolved in Africa with scientists now saying Europe may have played a part.
According to Earth.com, the new bone fragments come from a species known as hominins, an ancestor of chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and also humans.
Because of the age of the fossils found, the team behind the research believe the discovery adds weight to a theory our ancestors may have evolved in Europe before migrating to Africa between nine and seven million years ago.
Professor David Begun from the University of Toronto and Professor Ayla Sevim Erol from Ankara University oversaw the team digging for the fossils and have published a paper in Nature.
Professor Begun said: “Our findings further suggest that hominines not only evolved in western and central Europe but spent over five million years evolving there and spreading to the eastern Mediterranean before eventually dispersing into Africa, probably as a consequence of changing environments and diminishing forests.
“The members of this radiation to which Anadoluvius turkae belongs are currently only identified in Europe and Anatolia.”
Anadoluvius turkae would have stood around four-feet-tall and weighed around nine stone, similar in size to a modern-day female gorilla.
Professor Sevim Erol added: “We have no limb bones but judging from its jaws and teeth, the animals found alongside it, and the geological indicators of the environment, Anadoluvius probably lived in relatively open conditions, unlike the forest settings of living great apes.
“More like what we think the environments of early humans in Africa were like. The powerful jaws and large, thickly enameled teeth suggest a diet including hard or tough food items from terrestrial sources such as roots and rhizomes.”