Graecopithecus

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Graecopithecus
a: lower jaw (holotype) of Graecopithecus freybergi; b: left premolar P4, archive number RIM 438/387; ci: 3-D reconstructions of the lower jaw with tooth roots made visible (originals)

a: lower jaw ( holotype ) of Graecopithecus freybergi ;
b: left premolar P4, archive number RIM 438/387;
ci: 3-D reconstructions of the lower jaw with tooth roots made visible (originals)

Temporal occurrence
late Miocene ( Messinian )
7.2 million years
Locations
Systematics
Monkey (anthropoidea)
Old World Monkey (Catarrhini)
Human (Hominoidea)
Apes (Hominidae)
Graecopithecus
Scientific name
Graecopithecus
von Koenigswald , 1972
species
  • Graecopithecus freybergi

Graecopithecus is an extinct genus of primates from the family of great apes , which during the late Miocene to the south of present-day Greece in a savannah landscape occurred. The age of the fossils ascribed to Graecopithecus has been dated to around 7.2 million years agoon the basis of magnetostratigraphic measurements and biostratigraphic analyzes. The only described species of the genus is Graecopithecus freybergi .

At the exact classification of the genus Graecopithecus in the family tree of primates is still being researched. However, it should be noted that Graecopithecus should be considered as a possible ancestor of the Australopithecins because of the characteristics of its teeth . A related species from northern Greece that is around three million years older is Ouranopithecus macedoniensis .

Naming

Graecopithecus is an artificial word . The name of the genus is derived from the origin of the fossils (graeco - Greek) and from Greek  πίθηκος (ancient Greek pronounced) píthēkos , monkey. The epithet of the only scientifically recognized species to date , Graecopithecus freybergi , refers to the discoverer of the first fossil, Bruno von Freyberg . Graecopithecus freybergi therefore means "Freyberg Greek monkey".

Occasionally it has been suggested to assign the southern Greek fossils ( Graecopithecus freybergi ) and the northern Greek ( Ouranopithecus macedoniensis ) to the same genus, which would lead to the renaming of the northern Greek finds in "Graecopithecus macedoniensis" according to the international rules for zoological nomenclature ; however, this proposal has not caught on.

Initial description

The holotype of the genus and also the type Graecopithecus freybergi is a partially dentate lower jaw from the Pyrgos Vassilissis site near Athens, which Bruno von Freyberg discovered in 1944 during excavation work for a bunker of the Wehrmacht in the area around Athens and together with some other fossils as well as samples of reddish shimmering sediments dated to the late Miocene. Von Freyberg interpreted the find in 1951 as a remnant of the early monkey relative Mesopithecus . 1972 then saw Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald that it is in this lower jaw to the fossil of an early ape is he the newly introduced him genus Graecopithecus attributed. Due to the small number of fossil evidence - the lower jaw remained the only find for decades - the establishment of genus and species was controversial. For example, ouranopithecus macedoniensis finds were said to be so similar that in 1984 it was considered evidence of a single species.

More finds

In 2012 was one of the Bulgarian excavation sites in the district Asmaka ( Bulgarian Азмака ) at Chirpan an upper left fourth premolar discovered whose age at first only with reference to accompanying finds to around seven million years dated, whose age in 2017 but by direct dating by now 7.2 million years ago it was confirmed. The similarity of this tooth with the preserved teeth of the 7.2 million year old lower jaw of Graecopithecus prompted a research group led by Madelaine Böhme to describe both finds in detail in 2017 . It was particularly pointed out that the three roots of the premolars are partially fused, which is typical of the hominini , but not of the lineage leading to the other great apes. The research group deduced from this similarity that the immediate ancestors of the Australopithecines possibly also inhabited the area of ​​the northeastern Mediterranean and that this region should therefore - as previously assumed today's subtropical Africa - be considered as the origin of the early hominini.

a, b: upper jaw of Hippotherium brachypus ( Equidae );
ce: Tragoportax macedoniensis ( horn-bearing ), female skull

At Trachilos , West Crete, fossil footprints have also been preserved, which in a study published in 2017 were dated 5.7 million years ago and, according to the authors, show features of bipedal hominini. The traces could not be assigned to a known species due to the lack of associated fossil bones, but the authors pointed out that - the much older Graecopithecus freybergi is the only species from this region described so far that already showed certain characteristics of the hominini.

habitat

Similar to Ouranopithecus macedoniensis , Graecopithecus freybergi lived in a savannah-like , open grass and bushland, which was locally also loosely forested. Accordingly - according to fossil evidence - mainly ungulates lived in this biotope , with Adcrocuta eximia but also an early relative of the hyenas . Among other things, fossil rhinos , horses ( Hippotherium ), giraffe-like and various horned bearers (relatives of cattle and gazelle-like ) are documented.

Böhme and colleagues also found traces of typical reddish, salty Saharan dust in the find horizon, which they interpreted as the earliest indication of desertification in the Sahara region. However, the dust pollution was ten times higher than today and at up to 250 grams per square meter per year corresponded more to the situation in today's Sahel zone .

Web links

Commons : Graecopithecus freybergi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Madelaine Böhme , Nikolai Spassov, Martin Ebner, Denis Geraads, Latinka Hristova, Uwe Kirscher, Sabine Kötter, Ulf Linnemann, Jérôme Prieto, Socrates Roussiakis, George Theodorou, Gregor Uhlig, Michael Winklhofer: Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe . In: PLOS ONE . Volume 12, No. 5, 2017, e0177347, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0177347 , ISSN  1932-6203 (English).
  2. ↑ a b Jochen Fuss, Nikolai Spassov, David R. Begun, Madelaine Böhme : Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe . In: PLOS ONE . Volume 12, No. 5, 2017, e0177127, doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0177127 , ISSN  1932-6203 (English).
  3. ^ David W. Cameron: The taxonomic status of Graecopithecus. In: Primates. Volume 38, No. 3, 1997, pp. 293-302, doi: 10.1007 / BF02381616
  4. ↑ Bruno von Freyberg : The Pikermi fauna of Tour la Reine (Attica). In: Annales géologiques des Pays Helléniques. Series 1, Volume 3, 1951, pp. 7-10
  5. ↑ Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald : A lower jaw of a fossil hominoid from the Lower Pliocene of Greece. In: Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Series B. Volume 75, 1972, pp. 385-394
  6. ^ Lawrence B. Martin and Peter Andrews : The phyletic position of Graecopithecus freybergi Königswald. In: Courier Research Institute Senckenberg. Volume 69, 1984, pp. 25-40.
  7. ^ Nikolay Spassov et al .: A hominid tooth from Bulgaria: The last pre-human hominid of continental Europe. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 62, No. 1, 2012, pp. 138-145, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2011.10.008
  8. ↑ The oldest pre-human may have lived in Europe. On: idw-online.de from May 22, 2017
  9. ↑ Researchers move the cradle of mankind from Africa to Europe. On: spiegel.de from May 22, 2017
  10. ↑ Gerard D. Gierliński et al .: Possible hominin footprints from the late Miocene (c. 5.7 Ma) of Crete? In: Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Volume 128, No. 5-6, 2017, pp. 697-710, doi: 10.1016 / j.pgeola.2017.07.006
  11. ↑ The oldest pre-human may have lived in Europe , University of Tübingen, May 26, 2017