Illustration of Masripithecus moghraensis by Mauricio Antón.

A 17- to 18-million-year-old ape from Egypt suggests that the Middle East was a key centre in early hominoid evolution.

For decades, the early evolution of apes has been reconstructed from a narrow geographic window.

Fossils from East Africa, especially Kenya and Uganda, have shaped prevailing ideas about where and when the ancestors of today’s apes first appeared.

A new discovery from Egypt now broadens that view, pointing to northern Africa and the Middle East as a more likely centre for the origin of the living apes.

An international research team from the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center, Egypt, and the University of Southern California, USA describe Masripithecus moghraensis, a newly identified fossil ape that lived around 17 to 18 million years ago, during the Early Miocene.

Recovered from the Wadi Moghra fossil site in northern Egypt, the remains represent the first definitive fossil ape known from North Africa.

The finding not only extends the geographic range of early apes, but also places Egypt, and the wider Middle East region, at the heart of a pivotal evolutionary transition leading to modern apes.

Hesham Sallam, a paleontologist at Mansoura University, Egypt, and senior author of the study, said: “We spent five years searching for this kind of fossil because, when we look closely at the early ape family tree, it becomes clear that something is missing; and North Africa holds that missing piece.”

Front of the mandible and lower third molars of Masripithecus, with other fossils collected from the site. Copyright: Professor Hesham Sallam.

Debate

Previously, Early Miocene sites in North Africa had yielded fossils of monkeys, but not apes.

As a result, early apes and their close relatives were thought to be confined largely to more southern parts of Africa during this period.

Geologically younger ape fossils have been reported from Africa, Asia, and Europe, but their relationships and geographic roots are actively debated.

Now it appears likely that this uneven fossil record obscured our understanding of the origin of crown Hominoidea, the group that includes all living apes, from gibbons and orangutans to gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans, along with their last common ancestor.

The discovery of Masripithecus not only reveals that apes were present in North Africa during this time period, but also that the new species was quite distinct from similar-aged species in East Africa.

The genus name Masripithecus combines Masr, the Arabic word for Egypt, with the Greek píthēkos, meaning ape.

The species name refers to Wadi Moghra, a well-known fossil locality in northern Egypt, where the remains were recovered during fieldwork by the Sallam Lab team in 2023 and 2024.

Versatility

Although the new fossil material is limited to the lower jaw, it preserves a distinctive combination of features not seen in any other known ape from this time.

These include exceptionally large canine and premolar teeth, molar teeth with rounded and heavily textured chewing surfaces, and a notably robust jaw.

First author of the study, Shorouq Al-Ashqar, a researcher at the Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center, said: “Together, they suggest that Masripithecus was adapted for versatility.

“The study interprets its chewing anatomy as evidence of a flexible, mainly fruit-based diet, with the ability to process harder foods such as nuts or seeds when needed.

“This flexibility would have helped Masripithecus to thrive at a time when climatic changes were leading to more pronounced seasonality in northern Africa and Arabia.”

Masripithecus moghraensis and the dispersal of crown hominoids in the Miocene. Copyright: Professor Hesham Sallam.

Key position

Anatomy alone, however, is only part of the story; Masripithecus occupies a key position on the ape family tree.

Using sophisticated Bayesian methods, the team combined anatomical evidence from living and extinct apes, DNA from living apes, and the geological ages of fossil species to determine how living and extinct species are related, and when they all split from each other.

The researchers’ analysis found that Masripithecus is more closely related to the living apes than any species known from the Early Miocene of East Africa.

Additional biogeographic analyses by the team point to northern Africa and the Middle East as the most likely home for the common ancestor of all living apes, which is estimated to have lived during the Early Miocene.

During that time period, this region occupied a key position as the African and Arabian plates moved to the north during their final phase of collision with Asia.

Shifting sea levels periodically reduced marine barriers, turning the region into a natural corridor for animal dispersal.

In this context, Masripithecus provides a crucial intermediate link between the previously disjunct African and Eurasian fossil records, revealing that apes were already diversifying in the area and therefore positioned to expand into Europe and Asia as soon as land connections were established.

Challenge

Erik Seiffert, a palaeontologist at the University of Southern California who was a co-author of the study, said that his perspective on ape origins has changed: “For my entire career, I considered it probable that the common ancestor of all living apes lived in or around East Africa.

“But this new discovery, and our new and novel analyses of hominoid phylogeny and biogeography, now strongly challenge that idea.

“And, importantly, the likelihood of this scenario doesn’t depend on Masripithecus; but it is very much consistent with it.”

The researchers anticipate that renewed exploration in this region will uncover further fossils critical to understanding the origin and early diversification of modern apes.

As Masripithecus moghraensis shows, key chapters of our evolutionary history may still lie hidden in regions that have yet to be fully explored.

The study is published in Science.