Graecopithecus

Graecopithecus is an extinct genus of hominid that lived in southeast Europe during the late Miocene around 7.2 million years ago. Originally identified by a single lower jawbone bearing teeth found in Pyrgos Vasilissis, Athens, Greece, in 1944, other teeth potentially belonging to this taxon were discovered from Azmaka quarry in Bulgaria in 2012. With only little and badly preserved materials to reveal its nature, it is considered as "the most poorly known European Miocene hominoids." The creature was popularly nicknamed 'El Graeco' (word play on the Greek-Spanish painter El Greco) by scientists. In 2017, palaeontologists led by Madelaine Böhme of the Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Germany, published a controversial analysis of the teeth and age of the specimens, and came to the conclusion that it could be the oldest hominin, meaning that it could be the oldest direct ancestors of humans after splitting from that of the chimpanzees. Their simultaneous study also claimed that contrary to the generally accepted evidence of the African origin of the hominin lineage, the ancestors of humans originated from the main ape ancestry in the Mediterranean region (before migrating into Africa where they evolved into the ancestors of Homo species). They named the origin of human theory as the "North Side Story." These claims have been dismissed by most other scientists. Rick Potts and Bernard Wood argued that the evidence is too flimsy to even say it is a hominin. Tim D. White suggested that the analysis was an attempt to resurrect a "tired argument" for the European origins of human beings, while Sergio Almécija stated that single characters such as teeth could not support sweeping evolutionary claims.

Discovery The original Graecopithecus specimen was a single lower jawbone (mandible) found from a site called Pyrgos Vassilissis, northwest of Athens, in southern Greece in 1944, "reportedly unearthed as the occupying German forces were building a wartime bunker". The jawbone was almost complete with teeth when it was sent to Berlin for analysis, but was damaged by bombings during the final phases of World War II. Only the second molar and fourth premolar remain intact, while fragments of other teeth are still embedded. The original finder, German paleontologist Bruno von Freyberg initially believed that it belonged to an extinct Old World monkey Mesopithecus, as he reported in 1951. However, Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald realised that it was the tooth of an ape family and erected the scientific name Graecopithecus freybergi in 1972, after the discoverer. Another tooth (an upper fourth premolar) possibly belonging to Graecopithecus was discovered at Azmaka quarry in Bulgaria in 2012, originally assigned to cf. Ouranopithecus sp. or aff. G. freybergi. In 2017, Jochen Fuss and colleagues attributed the Azmaka premolar to cf. Graecopithecus sp.

Description

The mandible of Graecopithecus with a third molar that is very worn, the root of a second molar, and a fragment of a premolar, is dated from the late Miocene around 7.2 million years old. Excavation of the site is not possible (as of 1986) due to the owner having built a swimming pool on the location. The thick enamel and large molars are the features that convinced von Koenigswald that the specimen belonged to a hominid species. X-ray microtomography and 3-dimensional reconstruction in 2017 revealed that it belonged to an adult individual and possibly a male. The partial fusion of the fourth premolar (P4) roots is an additional evidence that it is of a hominid, and the thick enamel resembles those of the human lineage (hominins). A nearly complete femur, Azmaka femur, dating to the Messinian age around 7.2 million years ago has been tentatively assigned to cf. Graecopithecus. This femur could be a possible candidate for the ancestral form of bipedal behaviour that evolved in hominins later on predating the bipedalism seen in Orrorin and Sahelanthropus. This femur lacks many features seen in quadrupeds while having many traits that would indicate a complex locomotive lifestyle.

Classification G. freybergi is considered to be possibly the same taxon as Ouranopithecus macedoniensis, another extinct hominid described in 1977 from northern Greece. Due to paucity of specimens and poor quality of the fossils, it remains the least well-known extinct hominid found within Europe. In 1984, British palaeontologists Peter Andrews and Lawrence B. Martin classified Graecopithecus and Ouranopithecus as synonyms (same taxon) and treated them as members of the genus Sivapithecus. This classification persisted for several years until additional Ouranopithecus fossils were discovered including part of the skull in the 1990s that indicated better distinction as different hominids. Based on new evidences, in 1997, Australian palaeontologist David W. Cameron proposed renaming and inclusion of Ouranopithecus into Graecopithecus based on taxonomic priority with Graecopithecus macedoniensis as a new name for O. macedoniensis. However, better O. macedoniensis specimens were found including a new species Ouranopithecus turkae from Turkey that supported separation of the genus. This change was generally adopted.

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