The lower jaw of the 7.175 million year old Graecopithecus freybergi (El Graeco) from Pyrgos Vassilissis, Greece (today in metropolitan Athens). Credit: Wolfgang Gerber, University of Tübingen

The common lineage of great apes and humans split several hundred thousand years earlier than hitherto assumed, according to an international research team headed by Professor Madelaine Böhme from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen and Professor Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The researchers investigated two fossils of Graecopithecus freybergi with state-of-the-art methods and came to the conclusion that they belong to pre-humans. Their findings, published today in two papers in the journal PLOS ONE, further indicate that the split of the human lineage occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean and not - as customarily assumed - in Africa.

Present-day chimpanzees are humans' nearest living relatives. Where the last chimp-human common ancestor lived is a central and highly debated issue in palaeoanthropology. Researchers have assumed up to now that the lineages diverged five to seven million years ago and that the first pre-humans developed in Africa. According to the 1994 theory of French palaeoanthropologist Yves Coppens, climate change in Eastern Africa could have played a crucial role. The two studies of the research team from Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Canada, France and Australia now outline a new scenario for the beginning of human history.

Dental roots give new evidence

The team analyzed the two known specimens of the fossil hominid Graecopithecus freybergi: a lower jaw from Greece and an upper premolar from Bulgaria. Using computer tomography, they visualized the internal structures of the fossils and demonstrated that the roots of premolars are widely fused.

"While great apes typically have two or three separate and diverging roots, the roots of Graecopithecus converge and are partially fused - a feature that is characteristic of modern humans, early humans and several pre-humans including Ardipithecus and Australopithecus", said Böhme.

A 7.24 million year old upper premolar of Graecopithecus from Azmaka, Bulgaria. Credit: Wolfgang Gerber, University of Tübingen

The lower jaw, nicknamed 'El Graeco' by the scientists, has additional dental root features, suggesting that the species Graecopithecus freybergi might belong to the pre-human lineage. "We were surprised by our results, as pre-humans were previously known only from sub-Saharan Africa," said Jochen Fuss, a Tübingen PhD student who conducted this part of the study.

Furthermore, Graecopithecus is several hundred thousand years older than the oldest potential pre-human from Africa, the six to seven million year old Sahelanthropus from Chad. The research team dated the sedimentary sequence of the Graecopithecus fossil sites in Greece and Bulgaria with physical methods and got a nearly synchronous age for both fossils - 7.24 and 7.175 million years before present. "It is at the beginning of the Messinian, an age that ends with the complete desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea," Böhme said.

Professor David Begun, a University of Toronto paleoanthropologist and co-author of this study, added, "This dating allows us to move the human-chimpanzee split into the Mediterranean area."

Environmental changes as the driving force for divergence

As with the out-of-East-Africa theory, the evolution of pre-humans may have been driven by dramatic environmental changes. The team led by Böhme demonstrated that the North African Sahara desert originated more than seven million years ago. The team concluded this based on geological analyses of the sediments in which the two fossils were found. Although geographically distant from the Sahara, the red-colored silts are very fine-grained and could be classified as desert dust. An analysis of uranium, thorium, and lead isotopes in individual dust particles yields an age between 0.6 and 3 billion years and infers an origin in Northern Africa.

An electron microscope image of a dust particle rounded by eolian transport. It originated in the Sahara desert and was found in 7.2 million year old sediments in Greece. Credit: Ulf Linnemann, Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen

Moreover, the dusty sediment has a high content of different salts. "These data document for the first time a spreading Sahara 7.2 million years ago, whose desert storms transported red, salty dusts to the north coast of the Mediterranean Sea in its then form," the Tübingen researchers said. This process is also observable today. However, the researchers' modelling shows that, with up to 250 grams per square meter and year, the amount of dust in the past considerably exceeds recent dust loadings in Southern Europe more than tenfold, comparable to the situation in the present-day Sahel zone in Africa.

Fire, grass, and water stress

The researchers further showed that, contemporary to the development of the Sahara in North Africa, a savannah biome formed in Europe. Using a combination of new methodologies, they studied microscopic fragments of charcoal and plant silicate particles, called phytoliths. Many of the phytoliths identified derive from grasses and particularly from those that use the metabolic pathway of C4-photosynthesis, which is common in today's tropical grasslands and savannahs. The global spread of C4-grasses began eight million years ago on the Indian subcontinent - their presence in Europe was previously unknown.

"The phytolith record provides evidence of severe droughts, and the charcoal analysis indicates recurring vegetation fires," said Böhme. "In summary, we reconstruct a savannah, which fits with the giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, and rhinoceroses that were found together with Graecopithecus," Spassov added

"The incipient formation of a desert in North Africa more than seven million years ago and the spread of savannahs in Southern Europe may have played a central role in the splitting of the human and chimpanzee lineages," said Böhme. She calls this hypothesis the North Side Story, recalling the thesis of Yves Coppens, known as East Side Story.

The findings are described in two studies pubished in PLOS ONE titled "Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the late Miocene of Europe" and "Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe."

Explore further The development of amphibians and reptiles through twelve million years of geological history

More information: Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe, PLOS ONE (2017). Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe,(2017). journals.plos.org/plosone/arti … journal.pone.0177127 Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe, PLOS ONE (2017). journals.plos.org/plosone/arti … journal.pone.0177347 Journal information: PLoS ONE</s>A replica skull of a species belonging to the human family tree whose remnants were first discovered in a South African cave in 2013. (AAP)

Researchers have long believed humans split from apes some five million years ago in Africa, but a study suggests it happened in Europe far earlier than that.

Just where the last common ancestor between chimps - our closest relatives - and humans existed is a matter of hot debate in the scientific community.

The new hypothesis, released on Monday, says the origin of mankind is based on 7.2 million-year-old pre-human remains found in caves in Greece and Bulgaria.

Researchers from France, Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Canada and Australia analyzed the dental roots of two known specimens of the fossil hominid Graecopithecus freybergi.

Using a specialized X-ray known as computer tomography to scan a lower jaw from Greece and an upper premolar from Bulgaria, they found characteristics suggesting these ape like creatures - nicknamed "El Graeco" - were likely pre-humans, or hominids.

"We were surprised by our results, as pre-humans were previously known only from sub-Saharan Africa," said co-author Jochen Fuss, a researcher at the University of Tubingen.

The findings also showed Graecopithecus is far older than the oldest known potential pre-human from Africa -- Sahelanthropus from Chad, which is six or seven million years old.

The fossil in Greece was dated to 7.24 million years, while the Bulgarian one was 7.175 million years old, said the report in the journal PLOS ONE.

"This dating allows us to move the human-chimpanzee split into the Mediterranean area," said co-author David Begun, a University of Toronto paleoanthropologist.

Environmental changes may have helped drive the evolution of pre-human species, separate from apes, said co-author Madelaine Bohme, a professor of human evolution at the University of Tubingen.

"The incipient formation of a desert in North Africa more than seven million years ago and the spread of savannahs in Southern Europe may have played a central role in the splitting of the human and chimpanzee lineages," said Bohme.

The two fossils were found in sediment that contained red-colored silts "and could be classified as desert dust," said the report.

"These data document for the first time a spreading Sahara 7.2 million years ago, whose desert storms transported red, salty dusts to the north coast of the Mediterranean Sea in its then form," it said.

Severe droughts and wildfires may have forced apes to seek out new food sources, and begin walking upright more often.</s>Oct 31 The deadline for binding offers for the use of the natural gas pipeline between Bulgaria and Greece has been extended by a month to the end of November due to requests from bidders, the joint venture that runs the project said on Monday.

Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), estimated to cost 220 million euros ($240.68 million), has received nine expressions of interest to transport gas through it for a total capacity of 4.3 billion of cubic meters.

Earlier this month Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said four companies that have not participated in the first phase of the market test, have said they are interested in bidding, pending a nod from Bulgarian and Greek energy regulators.

Bulgarian state-owned energy holding company BEH has 50 percent in the joint venture, which will build the IGB pipeline, while Greek state energy firm DEPA and Italy's Edison hold 25 percent each.

The three shareholders in IGB, as well as Austria's OMV , Greece's Gastrade, U.S. Noble Energy and Azerbaijan's SOCAR have expressed an interest, among others.

Bulgaria and Greece last year agreed the decision to build the 182 km pipeline, which will help Sofia cut its almost total dependence on Russian gas and improve the security of its supplies. The gas link is expected to become operational in 2019. ($1 = 0.9141 euros) (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova, editing by Louise Heavens)</s>“I started getting into screamo when I was 17, thanks to a bootleg compilation called Death To False Screamo, where I first heard bands like Orchid and Saetia,” recalls Dimitar Raykov, who grew up writing and collecting fanzines in Central Bulgaria. These says, Raykov runs DIY Conspiracy, a web magazine about punk, hardcore, and emo in the Balkans, where he reviews and interviews groups from around the world, with a particular focus on lesser-known acts from southeastern Europe.

Back in the ’80s, Yugoslavia and Greece already had fertile punk and new wave scenes, and the number of punk and hardcore acts in the area has remained high since then. “There were a lot of good bands and venues,” says Mišo Ljuboje, who comes from Split—a city on the Croatian coast—but now lives in Vienna, where he books shows and runs a DIY label called Hardcore for the Losers. “The zine circuit was developed and there were enough connections,” Ljuboje says. “I think we’ve had quite a decent scene overall.”

Ljuboje got into emo and screamo by listening to political French DIY bands from the ’90s and early 2000s—artists like Amanda Woodward, Peu Être, and The Flying Worker—and by participating in the rising emo scene in Slovenia and Croatia. At the turn of the century, bands like the Zagreb-based Nikad were playing the same brand of aggressive screamo as American acts like Orchid and Yaphet Kotto, and were among the first to deliver an uncompromised mix of powerviolence and emocore. While Nikad were never internationally famous, they were certainly noticed by the most attentive and dedicated fans of the genre—like Kent McClard, the owner of the California label Ebullition Records. McClard once described Nikad as “the best band you’ve never heard of” in his zine HeartattaCk, which published from 1994 to 2006 and was, for many, a sort of emotional hardcore Bible.

Other great bands from that ere were The Farewell Reason (’90s emo from Čakovec in Croatia), With Engine Heart (raucous screamo from Celje in Slovenia), and Analena, whose members were spread among the two northern countries of former Yugoslavia, and were probably the best-known band from the region. Active since 1997, Analena were one of the few DIY acts from the Balkans who managed to tour Europe with any level of consistency, playing important hardcore festivals and self-releasing memorable records rich with crisp and energetic post-hardcore anthems.

Right now, screamo might not feel as exciting and new as it felt back then, but there are still a handful of active bands who have released a series of outstanding albums over the last few years. From the “futurist hardcore” of Greece’s Ruined Families to the uncontainable emoviolence (with 8-bit inserts!) of Serbia’s Eaglehaslanded, Balkan screamo is a beautifully diverse niche that has created a network of connections that extend beyond regional borders.

“Everyone seems to know each other, either from playing together, or from social media,” says Volodea Biri, who plays the drums for the Romanian emo band Bastos. “We’re best buds with Eaglehaslanded from Serbia, for example; we help them out with either booking shows for them or releasing their music, and they also help us out in return. It’s not out of obligation, it’s just mutual support and friendship.”

Bastos recently toured Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, and Serbia, one of several newer bands who are taking their music abroad. Croatian screamo band Mališa Bahat traveled to Italy, Spain, and Portugal in April; Ruined Families will be playing at the most important hardcore festivals in Europe in summer. And since mutual support is the key to keeping the scene alive, all of the members of these bands consistently book shows in their hometowns. “If you want some things to develop and work out, you just need to go for it and support it,” says Tejka Vasiljević, who plays the drums in YÖU and has been booking shows in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, for 10 years. “There’s no reason why we shouldn’t support other bands and scenes.”

The out-of-town acts who tour the region often describe it as a different experience, as if there’s something exotic and venturesome in playing on the edge of Europe. “Screamo shows here are like a special occasion,” says Biri, who’s also part of a booking collective in Bucharest. “We’re quite far from everything. There are no highways, and we are a 12-hour drive away from the closest big city out of the Balkans. We host maybe two or three shows a year, so people really enjoy it when it happens.”

In some places, booking shows and playing music is more of a challenge. Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria are part of the European Union, but the central part of the Balkan Peninsula remains much more isolated and is hardly accessible. Borders aren’t always easy to cross, and it’s not unusual for foreign bands to be refused entry into Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, even when they have shows scheduled there.

That same problem is amplified for the bands that come from these countries. “Our U.K. tour got canceled because some of us didn’t manage to get a simple tourist visa,” says Bojan Žujić, who comes from Banja Luka, the second biggest city in Bosnia, and plays bass for Deer in the Headlights. In the past five years, they’ve released two full-lengths and two splits, and in the meantime have toured all of Europe—from Germany and France to Turkey and Portugal.

“I think the main problem is that life standards are lower here,” he adds. “Plus, every time we want to play out of our country we gotta pay $120—which is one-third of an average monthly salary in Bosnia—for ATA Carnet, a document that allows us to bring our equipment abroad. At least we managed to get all the instruments we need and we have our own practice space.” Their rehearsal room is in the semi-abandoned outlying industrial area of Banja Luka, in an old factory that was later turned into a cultural center. It’s a small room shadowed by the smokestack of a massive run-down power plant, which also works as a good visual representation of their dark screamo that borrows elements from crust and fast Dangers-like hardcore.

Deer in the Headlights’ lyrics are a reflection of where they’re from, cynically describing life in a dysfunctional environment that’s still dealing with the consequences of a war that destroyed their country about 20 years ago. Even stereotypical tropes of hardcore punk feel different in this context: when, on one of their first songs, their singer screams at the top of her lungs that “Banja Luka is dead,” it feels more real and believable than it usually would. It’s describing a malaise that is tangible.

The same can be said about most bands from this region. The Balkans are a place that exists within the paradox of being part of Europe, while at the same time having rather secluded cultures. It’s this seclusion that allows—and even forces—these bands to sound angrier, more sincere, and more passionate. Playing loud, powerful, and desperate music is not art for art’s sake here. It’s a necessity.

The first impression one might get from listening to Eaglehaslanded is that they’re a cold-blooded trio playing screamo with mechanical precision. Their live shows, though—some of the most violent and powerful in Europe—display a rare passion and humanity that goes beyond musical perfectionism. The band, which started in 2011 and includes two brothers and a friend from the suburbs of Belgrade, also experiments with both sound and formats. Samples, 8-bit inserts, and video-game references turn up throughout their whole discography; in 2015 they released a two minute-long EP on a floppy disk. That levity almost clashes with the dismaying darkness of their lyrics. The second song on that EP is called “grobljanska,” which translates to “graveyard street.” “That’s actually where we come from,” admits bass player and singer Stefan Ćirić. “A lot of people killed themselves there or got involved in luckless car crashes. That explains why we’re kinda obsessed with the concept of cursed suburbia.”

Bastos are a rising band based in Bucharest, and their first full-length Second Favourite Person, is easily one of the best screamo records of the year. The band started playing instrumental math rock with tinges of twinkly emo back in 2012, and later decided to add passionate vocals to a rawer and more aggressive tableau. Underneath this newfound screamo blanket—where the main musical reference points seem to be European bands like Suis La Lune and Raein—the four-piece still fashions shimmering, effortlessly-blended guitar harmonies. This time, though, they’re part of something that is more intricate and emotionally involved, and the final result is a genuine and surprisingly coherent screamo gem.

“When I was 14, I was mad at the world,” confesses Vasiljević, alluding to the fact that, in her opinion, kids in Skopje have everything but a reason to be angry. She’s still mad, and the debut album of her new band YÖU, We Sing The Blues…, is a good display of the frustration she and her bandmates share. The Macedonian trio plays emotive hardcore, matching nervous guitar riffs with vocals that have a lot in common with both ’90s emo and current punk acts like Iron Chic. There’s a harrowing undertone to their music, but it occasionally makes room for anthemic singalongs that feel both liberating and empowering.

When, in the spring of 2016, Mališa Bahat released Moments We’re Lost In, it was a thrill for even the most informed screamo fans in Southern Europe. Not because the EP was particularly innovative or groundbreaking—but because in six songs, the Croatian band manage to distill the essence of screamo, offering a familiar-yet-effective formula that was inspired by both American and French bands, with a taste for melodic hardcore harmonies similar to Japanese hardcore bands like Endzweck. The same can be said of the two dark and striking songs on their new split with Lack of Soul, released on tape by the small Bosnian label Castrato Records (which is run by the guitar player of Deer in the Headlights.) They’re a testimony to the network of connections that allows bands like them to both exist and be heard in the Balkans.

Ruined Families are a band from Greece that knows how to use violent music to convey a message or an idea. They play powerful hardcore punk with hints of furious screamo and distorted post-punk, but their project is not exclusively focused on sound: lyrics, music videos, and artwork blend together to flesh out the five-piece’s aesthetic. On Blank Language, released in 2013, they passionately analyze the social and emotional consequences of the dramatic financial crisis that struck their country. Three years later, on their new full-length Education, they focus on the complex relationship between humanity and fast-advancing technologies. They define their music as “futurist hardcore,” but their chaotic sound is also a great sonic representation of contemporary society—and its contradictions.</s>The last common ancestor we shared with chimps seems to have lived in the eastern Mediterranean -- not in East Africa as generally assumed. This bold conclusion comes from a study of Greek and Bulgarian fossils, suggesting that the most mysterious of all ancient European apes was actually a human ancestor, or hominin. However, other researchers remain unconvinced by the claim.

The first pre-humans were widely believed to have developed in Africa with the lineages of humans and chimpanzees -- our closest living ancestor -- diverging around five to seven million years ago. According to a report from Phys Org, new research has shown that the split may have happened much earlier in eastern Mediterranean.

Led by Madelaine Böhme and Nikolai Spassov, a team of researchers analyzed two specimens of the fossil hominid Graecopithecus freybergi: a lower jaw from Greece and an upper premolar from Bulgaria. They used computer topography to figure out the internal structures of the individuals and found that the roots of premolars are widely fused.

"While great apes typically have two or three separate and diverging roots, the roots of Graecopithecus converge and are partially fused - a feature that is characteristic of modern humans, early humans and several pre-humans including Ardipithecus and Australopithecus," Böhme explained.

The lower jaw from Greece also had additional dental root features, which strongly suggested the species Graecopithecus freybergi is part of the pre-human lineage. Before this study, pre-humans have only been placed in sub-Saharan Africa. Graecopithecus is also several hundred thousand years older than the oldest potential pre-human ever discovered in Africa, so the human lineage may have actually begun in the Mediterranean.

Although scientists agree in the value of the recent study in its analysis of the species, not everyone is convinced that the Graecopithecus could be definitively classified as a hominin with the current data, according to a report from New Scientist.

Sergio Almécija from the George Washington University pointed out that primates are known to evolve similar features independently adding, "Single characters are not reliable to make big evolutionary [claims]."

The research was published in two papers in the journal PLOS ONE.</s>Chimpanzees are humans' nearest living relatives, but where the last chimp-human common ancestor lived has been debated for years by anthropologists.

Researchers in the Balkans have now discovered 7.2 million-year-old fossils, which they believe belonged to pre-humans.

The findings suggest that the split of the human lineage occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean and not - as customarily assumed - in Africa.

For decades, scientists have thought that humans originated in Africa. Modern humans (Homo sapiens) likely split from an apelike ancestor in east Africa around 200,000 years ago, the theory suggests. These early humans colonised the planet by spreading out of Africa around 50,000 years ago. The theory is popular because almost all of the fossils of early humans who lived between 6 and 2 million years ago come from Africa. But new studies analysing 7.2 million-year-old teeth found in Greece and Bulgaria suggest that the animals were pre-human ancestors. This means that modern humans could have originated in the Mediterranean and not Africa.

Until now, researchers have assumed that the lineages between great apes and humans diverged five to seven million years ago and that the first pre-humans developed in Africa.

But two studies by an international team of researchers led by the University of Toronto outline a new scenario for the beginning of human history.

The team analysed two known specimens of the fossil hominid Graecopithecus freybergi - a lower jaw from Pyrgos Vassilissis, Greece and an upper premolar from Azmaka, Bulgaria.

Using computer scanning, they were able to visualise the internal structures of the fossils and demonstrated that the roots of premolars are widely fused.

Professor Madelaine Böhme, who led the study, said: 'While great apes typically have two or three separate and diverging roots, the roots of Graecopithecus converge and are partially fused - a feature that is characteristic of modern humans, early humans and several pre-humans including Ardipithecus and Australopithecus.'

The lower jaw, which the scientists have nicknamed 'El Graeco', has additional dental root features, suggesting that the Graecopithecus freybergi might belong to the pre-human lineage.

Mr Jochen Fuss, who also worked on the study, said: 'We were surprised by our results, as pre-humans were previously known only from sub-Saharan Africa.'

An analysis showed that the Graecopithecus fossils were 7.24 and 7.175 million years old – several hundred thousand years older than the oldest potential pre-human from Africa, the six to seven million year old Sahelanthropus from Chad.

Professor David Begun, co-author of the study, added: 'This dating allows us to move the human-chimpanzee split into the Mediterranean area.'

The researchers believe that the evolution of pre-humans may have been driven by dramatic environmental changes.

WAS THE ORIGIN OF MAN MULTI-REGIONAL? One theory on the origin of man suggests that modern humans developed in multiple regions around the world. The theory claims that groups of a pre-human ancestor made their way out of Africa and spread across parts of Europe and the Middle East. From here the species developed into modern humans in several places at once. According to the multi-regional theory, different races arose in different regions as a result of natural selection as these populations evolved into modern humans. The argument is supported by fossil evidence of early and pre-human ancestors found across Europe and the Middle East over the past 100 years. But some scientists question whether these bones belonged to true pre-human ancestors or just early humans that had travelled from Africa. The two new teeth studies add fresh evidence to the multi-regional theory.

Based on geological analyses of the sediments in which the two fossils were found, the researchers found that the North African Sahara desert originated more than seven million years ago.

Although geographically distant from the Sahara, an analysis of uranium, thorium, and lead isotopes in individual dust particles showed an age between 0.6 and three billion years and suggests an origin in Northern Africa.

The dusty sediment also had a high content of different salts.

The researchers said: 'These data document for the first time a spreading Sahara 7.2 million years ago, whose desert storms transported red, salty dusts to the north coast of the Mediterranean Sea in its then form.'

WAS EVOLUTION DRIVEN BY WEATHER CHANGES? The researchers believe that the evolution of pre-humans may have been driven by dramatic environmental changes. Based on analyses of the sediments in which the two fossils were found, the researchers found that the North African Sahara desert originated more than seven million years ago. Although geographically distant from the Sahara, an analysis of uranium, thorium, and lead isotopes in individual dust particles showed an age between 0.6 and three billion years and suggests an origin in Northern Africa. The dusty sediment also had a high content of different salts. The researchers said: 'These data document for the first time a spreading Sahara 7.2 million years ago, whose desert storms transported red, salty dusts to the north coast of the Mediterranean Sea in its then form.'

Before the development of the Sahara in North Africa, the researchers believe that Europe was a vast savannah.

The researchers studied microscopic fragments of charcoal and plant particles, called phytoliths.

Many of the phytoliths studied were found to derive from tropical grasslands and savannahs.

The study marks the first time that such grasses have been discovered in Europe.

Professor Nikolai Spassov, who also worked on the study, said: 'In summary, we reconstruct a savannah, which fits with the giraffes, gazelles, antelopes, and rhinoceroses that were found together with Graecopithecus.'

Professor Böhme added: 'The incipient formation of a desert in North Africa more than seven million years ago and the spread of savannahs in Southern Europe may have played a central role in the splitting of the human and chimpanzee lineages.'

She calls this hypothesis the North Side Story, recalling the early thesis of French palaeoanthropologist, Yves Coppens, known as East Side Story.

15 million years ago - Hominidae (great apes) evolve from the ancestors of the gibbon 8 million years ago - First gorillas evolve. Later, chimp and human lineages diverge 4 million years ago - Ape like early humans, the Australopithecines appeared. They had brains no larger than a chimpanzee's but other more human like features 2.7 million years ago - Paranthropus, lived in woods and had massive jaws for chewing 2.3 million years ago - Homo habalis first thought to have appeared in Africa 1.8 million years ago - Homo ergaster begins to appear in fossil record 1.6 million years ago - Hand axes become the first major technological innovation 400,000 years ago - Neanderthals first begin to appear and spread across Europe and Asia</s>For the last century scientists have assumed that the lineages of man and ape diverged five to seven million years ago and that the first pre-humans developed in Africa. But the dating of a 7.2million year old pre-human tooth in the Balkans has thrown fresh doubt on the Africa theory. Present-day chimpanzees are humans' nearest living relatives and where the last chimp-human common ancestor lived is a central and highly debated issue in palaeoanthropology.

New research in the scientific journal PLOS ONE has further indicated that the split of the human lineage occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean and not - as customarily assumed - in Africa. The team, led by academics from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, the University of Tübingen and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, announced the discovery after analysing two specimens of the fossil hominid Graecopithecus freybergi. Although the species was already known, the discovery of a jawbone in Greece and a tooth in Bulgaria has allowed scientists to study them using modern techniques.

The research team found that the fossils were several hundred thousand years older than the oldest potential pre-human from Africa, the six to seven million year old Sahelanthropus from Chad. They dated the two finds by comparing the rocks they were in, or sedimentary sequence of the sites and got a nearly identical age for both fossils - 7.24 and 7.175 million years before present. Using computer tomography, they also visualised the internal structures of the fossils and found that its teeth roots were fused like modern man's. Professor Madelaine Bahme said: "While great apes typically have two or three separate and diverging roots, the roots of Graecopithecus converge and are partially fused - a feature that is characteristic of modern humans, early humans and several pre-humans including Ardipithecus and Australopithecus."

Tübingen PhD student Jochen Fuss who worked on the study said: "We were surprised by our results, as pre-humans were previously known only from sub-Saharan Africa." University of Toronto Professor David Begun added: "This dating allows us to move the human-chimpanzee split into the Mediterranean area." As with the out-of-East-Africa theory, the evolution of pre-humans may have been driven by dramatic environmental changes. Prof Bahme added: "The incipient formation of a desert in North Africa more than seven million years ago and the spread of savannahs in Southern Europe may have played a central role in the splitting of the human and chimpanzee lineages." The findings are described in two studies published in PLOS ONE titled "Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the late Miocene of Europe" and "Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe."</s>In 1944, German soldiers constructing a bunker in Greece uncovered a fossilized jawbone. The specimen was in poor shape, just a curve of mandible with its teeth mostly chipped away. “It was considered to be a specimen that nobody really knew what to do with,” said paleobiologist David R. Begun, a professor at the University of Toronto. But a new analysis of this broken jaw revealed that the bone is about 7 million years old. The jaw also has some humanlike characteristics, he says.

Begun and his colleagues say the fossil could represent the oldest known human ancestor. They further suggest that the fossil means our ancestors diverged from apes in Southern Europe — not Africa.

Both are bold and highly disputed claims. But the fossil itself is a rare specimen of an ape from around the time of the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.

In a pair of reports published Monday in the journal PLOS One, the scientists describe the fossil and the possible savanna environment in which the species lived. The researchers claim that the Eastern Mediterranean could “just as likely” be the location of ape and human diversification, as well as human ancestor origins, as tropical Africa.

Other experts on human prehistory disagree, pointing to extensive fossil evidence that hominins, meaning non-ape humans and their ancestors, originated in Africa and migrated north.

“David Begun has repeatedly proposed that the African ape and human clade arose in Europe and that gorillas, chimps and humans arose from an early European member of this group that migrated into Africa,” said John Kelley, a paleontologist at Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins. “This 'back into Africa' scenario has garnered few if any adherents.” The “near consensus,” Kelley said in an email, is that “the hominin lineage arose in Africa.”

The jaw in question belonged to a primate that anthropologists had previously named Graecopithecus freybergi. In the new study, researchers at the University of Tübingen in Germany used a CT scan to peer inside the jaw. They also analyzed an upper premolar tooth from another primate, dated via paleomagnetic studies to 7.2 million years ago, discovered in the Balkans in Bulgaria. The authors of the new studies suggest that this loose tooth could have come from another member of the same species.

The scans of the jaw showed some similarities with human ancestors. Despite the chipped teeth, the roots buried in the jawbone remained intact. “The canine root was very short,” Begun said. “The premolar roots were simplified, partly fused. Both of those characteristics we find only in members of human lineage.”

For the loose tooth, the thickness of the enamel ruled out other, better-documented ancient apes, the scientists said, such as Ouranopithecus. But they could not prove with absolute certainty that the tooth came from Graecopithecus freybergi.

“I really appreciate having a detailed analysis of the Graecopithecus jaw — the only fossil of its genus so far,” said Richard Potts, a paleoanthropologist who directs the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Program. “But I think the principal claim of the main paper goes well beyond the evidence in hand.”

Potts, who was not involved in this study, noted that “the heyday of ape diversity occurred in Eurasia between 12 and 10 million years ago.” This diverse group of primates migrated to lower latitudes — namely, Africa and Asia — to escape cooling northern temperatures and more powerful seasonal changes. There was “little to support” the idea that hominins appeared before leaving Europe.

“I don't think it's a strong case for hominin origins in Asia rather than Africa. Possible, yes,” said New York University's Susan C. Antón, a professor of anthropology who was not affiliated with the recent study. But because all of the later hominins are found in Africa, the simplest explanation, she said, “is an African origin.”

Kelley questioned the significance of the fused premolar root. Some of the earliest hominins didn’t have these fused tooth roots, whereas some of the later hominins did, he said. Given this discrepancy, it's a feature “that may have evolved independently in several different lineages,” he said.

“The evidence that canine root reduction indicates the hominin status of Graeco is also not very convincing,” Potts said. Only one canine root was studied. Plus, he said, there's no way to consider the root in the context of the entire tooth — the canine crown had snapped off. “So there’s little basis for accepting the exceptional claim that a 7.2 million year old fossil from Greece is the oldest known human ancestor!”

“I'm the first to admit that what we have is less than ideal,” Begun said. “We need better-preserved jaws, and some limb bones to tell us if it was bipedal.” The site in urban Athens where the jaw was discovered is now too developed to hunt for fossils. But where the lone tooth was found in the Balkans, to the north across the Aegean Sea from Athens, ancient rocky outcrops remain.

Begun said he plans to travel to Bulgaria to look for additional fossils. “If you have one tooth,” he said, “that means there has to be other specimens out there.”

Humanity’s strange new cousin is shockingly young — and shaking up our family tree

Another problem with cannibalism: Humans actually aren’t very filling</s>Bulgaria Air, the flag carrier of Bulgaria, just relaunched its website. The nice and shiny looking site contains a lot more information, it is more comprehensive than the old site, and booking flights seems to be easier. In addition, Bulgaria Air has added more offers, including rental car reservations and insurances.

In the past decade and a half, but especially since it has been owned by Chimimport Inc., the company was completely refurbished. During the early years of the new millennium, the fleet was extremely old, while the service was problematic, to say the least. At the same time low cost airlines were kept out of Bulgaria during those times.

Today, Bulgaria Air is a modern airline with a fleet of two Airbus A319 and three A320, as well as four Embraer 190 aircraft, which are being inspected at Lufthansa Technik, and with an improved service. Like most other national carriers in Europe, the airline is under pressure due to the low cost competition.

In 2016, Bulgaria Air performed 4,675 flights, while transporting 1.246 million passengers, slightly less than in 2015. The overall revenue decreased by 10 percent, which, compared to other national airlines in Europe, seems harmless.

With its many partners, the Bulgarian carrier offers hundreds of flight destinations on all continents, while on its own, Bulgaria Air has 23 destinations in Europe and the Middle East. Within Bulgaria, they fly from Sofia to Burgas and Varna.

Bulgaria Air’s new website can be reached here.</s>Ancient tooth fossils found in Europe may represent a new chapter in the human origin story.

The fossils, which date back more than 7 million years, belonged to an ape-like creature named Graecopithecus freybergi, researchers hypothesized in two new papers. A lower jaw bone and upper premolar were found in Greece and Bulgaria, respectively.

The findings suggest that humans split off from great apes several hundred thousand years earlier than previously thought, according to research published this week in the journal PLOS ONE.

If true, that would mean the first pre-humans developed in Mediterranean Europe — not in sub-Saharan Africa, which is widely considered the birthplace of early humans.

Still, the studies alone aren't enough to rewrite the story of humankind's beginnings.

Outside experts say they are deeply skeptical of the research. They argue the evidence is still too thin to upend decades' worth of fossil and genetic discoveries in Africa.

"The new claims about Graecopithecus need to be treated with a good deal of caution," Darren Curnoe, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales Sydney, wrote in an opinion piece for The Conversation.

"I'm open to the idea that early humans lived beyond Africa, but Graecopithecus falls well short of proving it," he said.

Many researchers assume that human and ape lineages diverged some 5 to 7 million years ago. Charles Darwin initially surmised that humans evolved in Africa, because that's the home of humans' closest ape relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas.

The oldest potential pre-human, a 6- to 7-million-year old named Sahelanthropus, was found in present-day Chad. But the Graecopithecus — nicknamed "El Graeco" — may be even older, according to an international team of researchers.

The Bulgarian premolar dates back some 7.24 million years ago, and the Greek jaw fossil dates back 7.175 million years ago, they said.

The teams were led by Madelaine Böhme from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment in Germany and Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Researchers used computer tomography to take cross-sections of the two fossils. They found the roots of premolars were widely fused, a feature that is characteristic of modern humans, early humans, and several pre-human ancestors. Great apes, by contrast, have two or three separate and diverging premolar roots.

The lower jaw fossil also had additional dental root features that suggested its owner belonged to the pre-human lineage.

"We were surprised by our results, as pre-humans were previously known only from sub-Saharan Africa," Jochen Fuss, a doctoral student at the University of Tübingen in Germany who conducted this part of the study, said in a press release.

But Curnoe, the skeptical professor, said studying just one feature — dental roots — on a small number of fossils wasn't enough to prove El Graeco was on Team Human, not Team Ape.

"While our place in the tree of life is now well established — chimpanzees being our closest relatives — the beginning of the human line millions of years ago continues to be shrouded in mystery," he noted.
Scientists discover 7.2 million-year-old "pre-human" remains in the Balkans area near Bulgaria and Greece.