Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe
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...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Public Library of Science
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54773 |
| _version_ | 1848759457164558336 |
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| author | Böhme, M. Spassov, N. Ebner, M. Geraads, D. Hristova, L. Kirscher, Uwe Kötter, S. Linnemann, U. Prieto, J. Roussiakis, S. Theodorou, G. Uhlig, G. Winklhofer, M. |
| author_facet | Böhme, M. Spassov, N. Ebner, M. Geraads, D. Hristova, L. Kirscher, Uwe Kötter, S. Linnemann, U. Prieto, J. Roussiakis, S. Theodorou, G. Uhlig, G. Winklhofer, M. |
| author_sort | Böhme, M. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | 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 7.37-7.11 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 (7.175 Ma) and the single tooth (7.24 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. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T10:00:11Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-54773 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T10:00:11Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-547732017-10-31T01:46:59Z Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe Böhme, M. Spassov, N. Ebner, M. Geraads, D. Hristova, L. Kirscher, Uwe Kötter, S. Linnemann, U. Prieto, J. Roussiakis, S. Theodorou, G. Uhlig, G. Winklhofer, M. 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 7.37-7.11 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 (7.175 Ma) and the single tooth (7.24 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. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54773 10.1371/journal.pone.0177347 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Public Library of Science fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Böhme, M. Spassov, N. Ebner, M. Geraads, D. Hristova, L. Kirscher, Uwe Kötter, S. Linnemann, U. Prieto, J. Roussiakis, S. Theodorou, G. Uhlig, G. Winklhofer, M. Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe |
| title | Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe |
| title_full | Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe |
| title_fullStr | Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe |
| title_full_unstemmed | Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe |
| title_short | Messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin Graecopithecus from Europe |
| title_sort | messinian age and savannah environment of the possible hominin graecopithecus from europe |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/54773 |