Lluc, European ancestor?
Hominoid fossils seem to be coming out of Europe thick and fast at the moment. Following hot on the heels of the Ida hoopla, the fossilised face and jaw of a previously unknown hominoid primate genus has been discovered in Spain. It dates from the Middle Miocene era, in the region of 12 million years ago.
Nicknamed “Lluc,” the male bears a strikingly “modern” facial appearance with a flat face, rather than a protruding one. The finding sheds important new light on the evolutionary development of hominids, including orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and humans.
In a study appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Salvador Moyà-Solà, director of the Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and colleagues present evidence for the new genus and species, dubbed Anoiapithecus brevirostris. The scientific name is derived from the region where the fossil was found (l’Anoia) and also from its “modern” facial morphology, characterized by a very short face.
Thankfully, no “missing link” talk. But its modern, flat-faced appearance does raise intriguing questions about its relationship to us. Could we have a European ancestor after all?
Anoiapithecus displays a very modern facial morphology, with a muzzle prognathism (i.e., protrusion of the jaw) so reduced that, within the family Hominidae, scientists can only find comparable values within the genus Homo, whereas the remaining great apes are notoriously more prognathic (i.e., having jaws that project forward markedly). The extraordinary resemblance does not indicate that Anoiapithecus has any relationship with Homo, the researchers note. However, the similarity might be a case of evolutionary convergence, where two species evolving separately share common features.
So the debate revolves around the geographic origin of the hominid family. The consensus at the moment is that it is Africa, so is Anoiapithecus brevirostris a European offshoot from an African family? And, fascinatingly, did this European offshoot then return to Africa? This is the subject of an article in New Scientist magazine.
Moyà-Solà says that A. brevirostris and some similar-looking kenyapithecins lived in Europe shortly after the afrohominid and kenyapithecin lineages split, and so that the divergence itself may have happened there. If he is right, our hominid ancestors lived in Europe and only later migrated to Africa, where modern humans evolved.This “into Africa” scenario is likely to be controversial. Critics argue that discoveries like Moyà-Solà’s are more likely to reflect the quality of the fossil records in Africa and Europe than offer clues to the actual origins of hominids.
Muddying the waters is that the European fossil record for the time is superior to the African one. The Spanish project is continuing and researchers anticipate that more fossils remains will be found in the future. These should provide more information to help solve the puzzle.
Isn’t science exciting!
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