MILLIONS of years before early humans evolved in Africa, their ancestors may have lived in Europe. A 12-million-year-old fossil hominid from Spain provides the strongest evidence yet for this idea.
The fossil, named Anoiapithecus brevirostris by Salvador Moyà-Solà of the Catalan Institute of Palaeontology in Barcelona, Spain, and his colleagues, dates from a period of our evolution for which the record is very thin. Only the animal’s face, jaw and teeth survive, and their shape places it within the African hominid lineage that gave rise to gorillas, chimps and humans. But it also has features of a related…
