- Researchers have identified a new 18-million-year-old fossil ape species, named Masripithecus moghraensis, discovered at the Wadi Moghra site in Egypt.
- The discovery marks the first definitive fossil ape species ever found in North Africa.
- Analysis of the fossilised jaw bones indicates the species had a flexible, fruit-based diet that adapted to shifting seasonal climates.
- The findings challenge long-standing assumptions that the evolutionary roots of all modern apes were centred primarily in East Africa.
- Scientists suggest North Africa and the Middle East may have been the geographic home for the common ancestor of all living apes, including humans.
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