Fossils of an ancient ape discovered in Egypt are challenging long-standing ideas about where the ancestors of modern apes, including humans, first evolved. The species, Maslipithecus mograensis, lived about 17 to 18 million years ago, and its remains represent the first definitive ape fossil found in North Africa. The discovery suggests that North Africa and the Middle East may have played a central role in the early diversification of the lineage that eventually produced modern apes.
A missing piece of ape evolution
The newly identified species lived during the early Miocene, a period spanning roughly 23 million to 16 million years ago. Its fossilized remains were found at Wadi Moghra in northern Egypt during expeditions in 2023 and 2024 by researchers from the Salam Institute.
The findings are described in a study published on March 26, 2026, by an international team from Egypt’s Mansoura University Center for Vertebrate Paleontology and the University of Southern California in the United States.
For decades, scientists believed that early apes and their relatives were concentrated mainly in regions farther south in Africa. Fossils of ancient monkeys from the early Miocene have been found in North Africa, but researchers had not found conclusive evidence of great apes from the same period.
Fossils of early apes have also been discovered across Africa, Europe and Asia. However, their evolutionary relationships and geographic origins remain debated. The limited and uneven fossil record may have obscured important details about when and where the lineage leading to modern apes first emerged.
“We spent five years looking for fossils of this kind, because when you look closely at the family tree of early apes, it becomes clear that something is missing, and North Africa is that missing piece,” said Hesham Salam, a paleontologist at Mansoura University and lead author of the study.
The discovery is particularly relevant to the origin of crown hominids, an evolutionary group that includes the last common ancestor of all modern apes and its descendants. The group includes gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and humans.
An ape with unusually robust teeth
The researchers named the species Maslipithecus mograensis. The genus name combines Masr (مصر), the Arabic word for Egypt, with pithekos, the Greek word for monkey. The species name refers to Wadi Moghra, where the fossil was discovered.
The recovered material consists only of part of the lower jaw, but it displays an unusual combination of features that distinguishes the animal from other apes of the same age.
The jaw is robust, with very large canines and premolars. The molars have rounded chewing surfaces covered with noticeable irregularities. These features provide clues about the animal’s diet and the environment in which it lived.
The researchers believe that Maslipithecus primarily ate fruit but had teeth strong enough to process harder foods when necessary. That dietary flexibility may have helped it survive as seasonal changes became more pronounced in North Africa and Arabia.
“Together, they suggest Maslipithecus was tailored for versatility,” said Shoruk Al-Ashkar, a researcher at Mansoura University’s Center for Vertebrate Paleontology and lead author of the study. “This study interprets its masticatory anatomy as evidence of a flexible diet, primarily fruit-based, with the ability to process hard foods such as nuts and seeds as needed. This flexibility would have been helpful as climate change created more pronounced seasonality in North Africa and Arabia.”
Food availability may have shifted during the year as seasonal differences intensified. An ape capable of eating a broader range of foods would have been better equipped to cope with those changes.
A challenge to the ape family tree
The importance of Maslipithecus extends beyond its distinctive anatomy. When the researchers analyzed its position on the evolutionary family tree, they found that it was more closely related to modern apes than any other known ape from the early Miocene of East Africa.
To assess these relationships, the team used Bayesian statistical methods. These methods allow scientists to compare different evolutionary scenarios and estimate how strongly the available evidence supports each one.
The analysis combined anatomical data from living and extinct great apes with genetic evidence from living species. The researchers also incorporated the geological ages of fossil specimens to estimate when different evolutionary branches diverged.
The results challenge the long-held assumption that the evolutionary roots of all modern great apes were concentrated in or around East Africa.
Was northern Africa a center of ape evolution?
Additional analysis of the geographic distribution of ancient animals indicated that the common ancestor of all modern apes most likely lived in northern Africa and the Middle East.
The ancestors of this group are estimated to have lived during the early Miocene, when ape lineages were diversifying and environments were undergoing major changes. Geography may help explain why the region was important.
Millions of years ago, Africa, Arabia and Asia were moving toward a new geological configuration. As the African and Arabian tectonic plates moved northward and approached the final stages of their collision with Asia, connections between the continents changed.
Sea levels also rose and fell, periodically reducing the bodies of water that separated different regions. At certain times, these changes may have made it easier for animals to move between Africa and Eurasia.
North Africa and the Middle East therefore occupied a potentially important position in the migration and evolution of ancient mammals, including great apes.
The discovery of Maslipithecus helps connect previously separated African and Eurasian fossil records. It suggests that apes may already have been diversifying in this region before new land connections enabled them to expand into Europe and Asia.
Rather than being a peripheral location in great-ape evolution, the region may have been an important center of evolutionary diversification.
Rethinking the origins of modern apes
The evidence has led some researchers to reconsider ideas they had held throughout their careers.
Eric Seifert, a paleontologist at the University of Southern California and a co-author of the study, described how the discovery changed his view of great-ape origins.
“Throughout my career, I have believed that the common ancestor of all modern apes likely lived in or around East Africa. However, this new discovery, and our new and novel analysis of hominid phylogeny and biogeography, strongly challenges that idea. And importantly, the likelihood of this scenario does not depend on Maslipithecus—but it’s very consistent with that,” Seifert said.
The researchers are not claiming that Maslipithecus was a direct ancestor of humans, or necessarily of modern apes. Instead, its position on the evolutionary tree provides evidence about the geographic origin of the broader ancestral lineage.
This distinction is important because humans emerged much later. The Egyptian fossil offers clues about the early evolution of a distant ancestor shared by humans and other modern apes.
The findings also suggest that the traditional focus on East African fossils may have provided an incomplete view of this much older evolutionary history.
More fossils may be waiting in North Africa
The discovery provides new evidence, but many questions about Maslipithecus and the early history of modern apes remain unanswered.
Only part of the animal’s jaw has been recovered, leaving its overall appearance, body size, movement and behavior uncertain. Additional fossils could provide a more complete picture of how the species lived and how it was related to other early apes.
The researchers believe that further exploration of North Africa and the Middle East may reveal additional species and clarify when and where the major lineages of the modern ape family tree began to emerge.
For now, Maslipithecus mograensis is a reminder that even fundamental ideas about our distant evolutionary past can change when evidence is found in places that have received comparatively little attention.
A jaw fossil preserved for nearly 18 million years may be helping scientists reconstruct a long-missing chapter in evolutionary history.
Source: www.sciencedaily.com
