The journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ 13 Copyright © 2005, Paleoanthropology Society. All rights reserved. Published for the PAS by Penn Press University of Pennsylvania The Skull of Australopithecus afarensis William H. Kimbel, Yoel Rak and Donald C. Johanson with a chapter by Ralph L. Holloway and Michael S. Yuan New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, 254 pp., hardback. ISBN 0-19-515706

The skull of Australopithecus afarensis

Dating fossil hominids and reconstructing their environments is critically important for understanding human evolution Here we date the potentially oldest hominin, Graecopithecus freybergi from Europe and constrain the environmental conditions under which it thrived For the Graecopithecus-bearing Pikermi Formation of Attica/Greece, a saline aeolian dust deposit of North African (Sahara) provenance, we obtain an age of 737-711 Ma, which is coeval with a dramatic cooling in the Mediterranean region at the Tortonian-Messinian transition Palaeobotanic proxies demonstrate C4-grass dominated wooded grassland-to-woodland habitats of a savannah biome for the Pikermi Formation Faunal turnover at the Tortonian-Messinian transition led to the spread of new mammalian taxa along with Graecopithecus into Europe The type mandible of G freybergi from Pyrgos (7175 Ma) and the single tooth (724 Ma) from Azmaka (Bulgaria) represent the first hominids of Messinian age from continental Europe Our results suggest that major splits in the hominid family occurred outside Africa

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Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe

The radiation of macaques out of Africa: Evidence from mitogenome divergence times and the fossil record.

Humans diverged from apes (chimpanzees, specifically) toward the end of the Miocene ~9.3 million to 6.5 million years ago. Understanding the origins of the human lineage (hominins) requires reconstructing the morphology, behavior, and environment of the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor. Modern hominoids (that is, humans and apes) share multiple features (for example, an orthograde body plan facilitating upright positional behaviors). However, the fossil record indicates that living hominoids constitute narrow representatives of an ancient radiation of more widely distributed, diverse species, none of which exhibit the entire suite of locomotor adaptations present in the extant relatives. Hence, some modern ape similarities might have evolved in parallel in response to similar selection pressures. Current evidence suggests that hominins originated in Africa from Miocene ape ancestors unlike any living species.

Fossil apes and human evolution.

Many ideas have been proposed to explain the origin of bipedalism in hominins and suspension in great apes (hominids); however, fossil evidence has been lacking. It has been suggested that bipedalism in hominins evolved from an ancestor that was a palmigrade quadruped (which would have moved similarly to living monkeys), or from a more suspensory quadruped (most similar to extant chimpanzees)1. Here we describe the fossil ape Danuvius guggenmosi (from the Allgau region of Bavaria) for which complete limb bones are preserved, which provides evidence of a newly identified form of positional behaviour-extended limb clambering. The 11.62-million-year-old Danuvius is a great ape that is dentally most similar to Dryopithecus and other European late Miocene apes. With a broad thorax, long lumbar spine and extended hips and knees, as in bipeds, and elongated and fully extended forelimbs, as in all apes (hominoids), Danuvius combines the adaptations of bipeds and suspensory apes, and provides a model for the common ancestor of great apes and humans.

A new Miocene ape and locomotion in the ancestor of great apes and humans

The split of our own clade from the Panini is undocumented in the fossil record To fill this gap we investigated the dentognathic morphology of Graecopithecus freybergi from Pyrgos Vassilissis (Greece) and cf Graecopithecus sp from Azmaka (Bulgaria), using new μCT and 3D reconstructions of the two known specimens Pyrgos Vassilissis and Azmaka are currently dated to the early Messinian at 7175 Ma and 724 Ma Mainly based on its external preservation and the previously vague dating, Graecopithecus is often referred to as nomen dubium The examination of its previously unknown dental root and pulp canal morphology confirms the taxonomic distinction from the significantly older northern Greek hominine Ouranopithecus Furthermore, it shows features that point to a possible phylogenetic affinity with hominins G freybergi uniquely shares p4 partial root fusion and a possible canine root reduction with this tribe and therefore, provides intriguing evidence of what could be the oldest known hominin

/pdf/potential-hominin-affinities-of-graecopithecus-from-the-late-2v9wotrcpt.pdf

Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe

The formation of dental caries is mainly caused by dietary habits and therefore, may contain information for dietary reconstructions of fossil hominids. This study investigates the caries lesion in the 12.5 Ma old type specimen of Dryopithecus carinthiacus Mottl 1957 (Primates, Hominidae) from St. Stefan (Austria). Potential food sources are identified on associated palynological data, which allow conclusions about food quality, sugar availability and the hominid metabolism during the Middle Miocene. Using micro computed tomography (μCT) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) we provide a detailed analysis and characterization of the individuals’ caries type. Its lesion is compared with a dataset of 311 wild chimpanzees, indicating morphological and etiological differences in caries formation between both species. The affected molar of D. carinthiacus reveals features known from severe dental caries in humans: (1) Cavitation with steep walls and smooth surface; (2) Reparative dentine at the roof of the pulp chamber; (3) Sclerotic dentine below the cavitation; (4) Association with dental calculus and (5) Unilateral usage of the healthy right tooth row. Its advanced primary caries, initiating on the intact enamel surface, indicates a frequent intake of highly cariogenic sugar-rich fruits, which likely exceeds the frugivory of extant chimpanzees. This finding corresponds with the associated palynological record, which infers a habitat with nearly year-round supply (9–10 months/year) of high quality foods (>carbohydrates; < fibers). Our conclusions challenge the model of a step-wise increase in dietary quality during hominid evolution and support the uricase hypothesis, which discusses the hominid autapomorphy of a fructose-based fat accumulation for periods of starvation. This model receives further validation by the identification of soft-tissue preservation, interpreted as fossilized white adipose cells, in the articulated hominid skeleton of Oreopithecus bamboli from Italy.

/pdf/earliest-evidence-of-caries-lesion-in-hominids-reveal-sugar-4le2r6miq2.pdf

Earliest evidence of caries lesion in hominids reveal sugar-rich diet for a Middle Miocene dryopithecine from Europe.

PUBLISHED: 30 May 2018 Benoit and Thackeray1 provide a cladistic analysis that aims to refute the hypotheses that Graecopithecus is a member of the hominin clade and that hominins could have originated in the Eastern Mediterranean. In our response, we point out that the authors’ thesis relies on a selective use of data and a series of misrepresentations of our results and conclusions that reflect what we see as an a priori hostility to the very idea of a non-African origin of the hominin clade.

/pdf/response-to-benoit-and-thackeray-2017-a-cladistic-analysis-3gwk29h5sd.pdf

Jochen Fuss

Papers

A new Miocene ape and locomotion in the ancestor of great apes and humans

Potential hominin affinities of Graecopithecus from the Late Miocene of Europe

Earliest evidence of caries lesion in hominids reveal sugar-rich diet for a Middle Miocene dryopithecine from Europe.

Response to Benoit and Thackeray (2017): ‘A cladistic analysis of Graecopithecus’